Yes Professor Mills
by The Veiled King
Summary: Teacher/Student AU. No Magic. Archer finds himself captivated by his Creative writing Professor, who just so happens to have a tough reputation. Archer's blatant disregard for most of the rules may come back to bite him. Brit in American University. Might turn into M later on down the line, who knows. TW: mentions of sexual assault
1. Chapter 1

So, I've been reading a lot of Student/Teacher University AUs lately - Don't judge me - So, I made one and it's been turning in my head for a while now, so. I'm writing it whilst I write two different chapters for my other fanfics because I am incapable of being able to stick to one story now.

There are a few characters I own: Kieran Levy, Kate 'Scouser' Joyce, Archibald 'Eton Boy' McCall and George 'Geordie' Knight.

Chapter 1

Monday morning at 7 am, the screeching of his alarm sounded him to wake from the warm cocoon he found himself in under his thick blankets. The man let out a groan and fumbled with his phone to shut the damn thing up.

Bracing himself for the cold harsh reality of the outside world, he pulled the thick blanket off of himself, grabbed his towel and shower things and shuffled his way to the shared bathroom on the next floor. There were 8 people in the dorm including himself. One was a friend he had known for 3 years, another for 5 years. The dorm was essentially a shared house, known as The Astor house.

As he shuffled along the floor and up the stairs a voice cut through the calm air.

"Morning Archie!" A chipper female voice, australian.

The man now identified as Archie attempted to remember what this female's name is. Furrowing his brows, before he remembered. "Morning Belle!" He sent her a smile and leant against the bannister as he spoke to his new dorm friend.

"Excited for class?" Belle asked him. Archie remembered that she was an English Literature Major. Belle was of average height, brunette with princess curls that fell impossibly perfectly around her face. She was sweet and she didn't have a problem with anyone, she also didn't take shit from anyone either. A lowkey Badass if you will.

The whole dorm had gone out during the weekend to get to know each other and they had already become close-knit. Archie had found out that two of their dorm mates were dating and it was by sheer chance and luck they landed in the same dorm as each other.

"I'm trying to remind myself as to why on earth I picked a 9 am Monday start," Archie told her, chuckling when Belle scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Which class are you off to?" The Aussie asked him as she leant against her door frame in tartan PJ bottoms and an oversized College t-shirt on.

"Uh… Creative Writing with Professor Mills?" Archer attempted to tell her but it came out like more than a question than anything else. He had no idea and he regretted the few shots he had done the night before with the dorm.

Belle looked as if she were in thought for a moment before nodding. "Oh! Apparently, she's very strict. I heard that she once failed a whole class."

Archer rubbed his face with his hand. "Fuck. I have a feeling that she'll hate me." He heard Belle laugh and he shook his head. "Right! Belle! I need to shower, I smell like tequila and I highly doubt Professor Mills will let me into her classroom smelling like that."

"Of course! Want to get coffee with me and Ruby after class?"

"That would be great, thank you" Archie smiled genuinely at her and made his way to one of the two bathrooms they had.

Once he was showered and his teeth brushed he wandered back to his room on the first floor.

"Oi! Archie, want a Cuppa?" A voice caught his attention as he stood basically naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist.

He knew that voice, it was British, Newcastle to be specific. "Please Geordie, two sugars ta!" Archie called out and went to his room that was maybe eight steps max from the kitchen.

Archie quickly dried himself threw on new boxers, a pair of black ripped slim cut jeans, a white and blue vertical striped shirt with no collar and a pair of blue doc martens. Looking at himself in the mirror he checked out his outfit. His jaw was dusted with thick stubble well on its way to becoming a full-grown beard if you gave it a few more days. His face had possessed the strong structure of a man grown and his black wavy locks which slowly transformed into curly hair was slightly longer and his bright blue eyes stared back at him.

He grabbed his black leather laptop bag, pulled his gold MacBook into it - a collective gift from his family before he left - his charger for the laptop and his phone and his creative writing book along with his pencil case - just in case.

Archie zipped up the bag threw on his black wool military style long coat and shoved his phone, wallet and keys into his pockets. He patted himself as he made his way through a mental checklist and remembered his cigarettes, taking them from across the room on the window sill he put them in his pocket along with the lighter. He nodded to himself and walked out of his room, turning off the light and locking the door.

Archer went to the kitchen where he was greeted by Ruby, Scouser, Geordie and Belle.

Geordie passed him a cup and he grinned. "Cheers lad."

The man smiled and held his own cup of tea in cheers. He was taller than Archie by a few inches, he had thin rimmed black glasses on and light stubble dusting his jaw. He had short brown locks and his green eyes shone with amusement and life. Geordie was dressed in the ways most hipsters like him were, cream t-shirt, one of those beige cardigans that teachers wore more often than not and brown skinny jeans along with dark leather timberlands.

Scouser, although more commonly known as Kate was from Britain much like Geordie, he was also taller than Archie just by an inch. However, she was Liverpool. She normally wore glasses however she had opted for contacts today it had seemed. The girl had chubby cheeks that Archie and Geordie continuously picked on her about - in good fun of course.

Scouser was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, rolled up, black low top vans, a mustard coloured sweatshirt and was wearing a blue denim jacket for the reason 'It's not double denim if they're different colours, don't be a dick' or something of the sort.

Ruby of course was wearing clothes that only covered about 10% of her body - if that. She was wearing black converse, short red denim shorts that were more of a belt than anything, a white shirt which was actually a crop top and a red leather jacket. Her hair was long and brunette with streaks of red running through it.

Belle, on the other hand, was wearing a red and black dress which the top part looked more of a shirt. There was a thin black belt on her waist and this was matched with her coat and her flats.

Archie sipped his tea and leant against the table, letting out a sigh. "I'm so tired."

"Why am I alive?" Scouser asked the Liverpool accent present and to the untrained ear, sounded like some chick coughing up phlegm. Kate was a Sociology Major with a Political Science minor. She like Archie had a twisted sense of humour, the duo constantly joking about death. Archer also found that if someone else would use Kate's sense of humour it was irritating and more often than not an annoyance, but when Kate acted like so, it was funny and charming.

Archer shrugged. "Too much of a coward to kill yourself?"

Scouser snapped her fingers. "That was it!" She smirked and took a sip of her own tea. "What are you lot doing for first class anyway?"

"Creative Writing with Mills" Ruby perked up and took a draining sip of her coffee.

"Same here." Archer nodded. "Class buddies!" the duo high fived each other

Belle rolled her eyes at Archie and Ruby's interaction. "I've got English Lit with Nolan."

"I have some sort of music," Geordie told them, shrugging. Geordie hadn't selected a Major yet, so he had full flexibility to find a course he wanted to be on.

"And that leaves me with Politics with some guy, who even knows. Don't even care." Kate told them, waving her hand off.

Archie checked the time on his phone, 7:52 am. "Right, I'm off."

"Do you not want a lift?" Geordie asked him, furrowing his brows.

"Oh shit, you drive, bitch I call shotgun," Archer exclaimed, excited he didn't have to walk. He drained the last of his tea and put the mug in the sink and rinsed it.

Soon everyone was ready and all buckled in, Archie having taken the shotgun and pulled music rights. The shape of You by Ed Sheeran blew from the speakers followed by Closer by the Chainsmokers, Despacito and the last song was Runaway by Galantis.

Archie rolled down the window along with Geordie and Ruby, proceeded to smoke a cigarette. The cold crisp almost autumn air swirling around in the car. After a few minutes of Scouser and Belle, the cigarettes were finished and the windows rolled up.

Once the group had arrived at main entrance they split up, Ruby and Archer when to the room, and entered the room, finding seats at the back.

A woman looked up from the paper on her desk, she had short brown hair, almost black and from what Archer could make out were brown eyes. The woman was in a dark grey dress, with black blazer and heels. She had tanned skin and a curvy, goddess-like body and Archer was in a daze as he looked at her.

"Good morning, you two are rather early." The woman acknowledged, her voice was deep and sultry and oh so intoxicating. "Why don't you move to the front, I don't bite." A twitch of her lips, she was smirking.

Ruby turned to Archer and nodded and the duo picked up their things and moved to the front. They were twenty minutes early, having gone for another cigarette, grabbed the coffee and walked around a bit to get a feel for the building.

Slowly students began to pour into the lecture hall, finally, when the clock struck 9 am the woman stood up and smiled at the class.

"Good morning everyone, My name is Professor Mills. As everyone can see there's an index card on everyone's desk. What I'd like you to do is Write your name and your email address on it. I'll collect it after class." She looked around and saw people nodding. "What I want everyone to do now though is we'll go round the class, say your name, where you're from and two interesting facts about yourself."

There was some murmuring in the class and it quickly settled down with the pointed look of the Professor.

"I'll go first shall I?" The woman smiled and perched herself onto her desk, one leg crossed over the other and got herself comfortable. "My name is Regina Mills, I'm from a small town in Maine. I have two books published and I make a mean lasagna." The woman pointed at Archie. "You next, you can stand up if you want."

Archie ever the attention seeking whore did, in fact, stand up. "Hello, my name is Archibald McCall. You can call me Archer, Archie, Arch, whatever. As you can probably tell from my accent, I am not American." There were a few chuckles from around the room. "I am in fact from England, more specifically, Eton. It's basically a small village with a castle, were we send our royalty to school. We also like to pronounce our Ts a lot too." A few more chuckles arose, and with a glance at the Professor, he saw an amused smirk on her lips. "Like a stereotypical Brit, I like my tea - which I will proudly tell you I am the best at making it. What this also means however is, don't touch my tea, don't look at my tea and definitely don't breathe near my tea." More chuckles came from around the room. "My last fact about myself would be... " He hummed attempting to think of something. "I wouldn't say it was interesting, but I can sing." Archer finished and sat down, the next person stood up and told the class about themselves.

Soon introductions are over and Professor Mills goes through the basic introduction of the course. Everyone filled out the index card and handed it to the front desk for the smoking hot Professor.

"Right class, you have half an hour left. Your assignment is to create a short story, or maybe just a chapter or two amounting to five thousand works due in next lesson on…" She trails off to look at the timetable.

"Wednesday at 1 pm, Professor Mills." Archer offered helpfully.

The woman nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you, Mr McCall, Wednesday at 1 pm." She looks around the room, making her way back to the desk and looking over the index cards.

A few students stand up, leaving the lecture hall, Archer looked over to space next to him, Ruby was leaving.

Archer pulled out his MacBook and began typing away at the laptop becoming invested in getting a head start.

Professor Mills smirked as she took in Archer suddenly typing feverishly away at the MacBook. "It's good to see that some students are taking this course seriously." The woman spoke, causing Archer to look up from his MacBook.

The remaining students that had been lingering took this into consideration and began to write on a notepad or on a laptop, or more like write a sentence and stare at it looking for any kind of inspiration.


	2. Chapter 2

Obviously I own nothing on her except Geordie, Scouser, Kieran and Archie.

Whatsapp names:

Archie: Archikins

Kate: Scouser

George: Geordie

Kieran: McNobbins

Ruby: Wolfgirl

Belle: BookNerd

David: NotSoCharming

Mary Margret: PeanutM&M

Chapter 2

After the half an hour Archer had gotten a good two thousand words into his short story, he packed the macbook away once the Professor had given the all clear to leave he smiled. "Bye Professor" Archer spoke cheerfully, giving her a wave which she returned.

Archer checked his phone to see that Belle had arrived at the starbucks that was on campus and had ordered him a pumpkin spice latte. Archer hummed in excitement and made his way to the starbucks.

He looked around trying to spot the duo and saw them huddled in the corner, Belle with a book and Ruby playing on her phone. Archie quickly made his way over to them , slung his laptop bag next to his seat and sunk into the sofa next to Belle.

"Hey teacher's pet" Ruby greeted him, grinned at him.

"I am not a teacher's pet, I just like writing." Archie huffed at her and pulled his phone out and began a group chat on whatsapp.

 _Archikins has created a group chat._

 _Archikins has changed the subject to "Astor Fam"_

 _Archikins has added Wolfgirl, BookNerd, NotSoCharming, PeanutM &M, McNobbins, Geordie and Scouser._

 _Scouser: The fuck is this shit?_

 _Archikins: A group chat, obviously_

 _Wolfgirl: Bitch if you send me some weird shit I swear I'll piss in your tea._

 _Scouser: Don't be bringing tea into this you uncouth swine._

 _BookNerd: Well, I think this is a great idea!_

 _Archikins: Thank you Belle!_

 _NotSoCharming: Why am I awake? It's 10:30, I don't have a lesson till 1._

 _Archikins: Don't be a bitch._

Archie grinned and set his phone down on the table, picking up the coffee Belle had got him. "Belle I fucking love you" Archer grinned, sipping the coffee.

"For buying you coffee?" Belle looked at him, an eyebrow raised in an unbelievable question.

Archer grinned at her. "Anyone who buys me a coffee is an automatic 10/10" He watched as Belle smiled and shook her head.

"You need some new priorities Archibald."

Ruby made a groan as she threw her head back and sighed. "We have a five thousand word assignment to do for Creative writing. I've been here less than a day and I already want to drop out."

Belle looked to her and took a sip of her own drink, from the smell of it, it was a tea. "You also need to get some new Priorities." Belle internally wondered at how she had come across her friendship with the two she was sitting with.

Draining the last of his coffee, Archie stood up. "Anyone need another drink?"

Belle looked at him in shock. "How have you drunk that so quickly? Are you burnt?"

Archie shrugged. "I just, I quite like pumpkin spiced latte." He admitted before strolling his way to the queue. Archie bounced on his heels and looked at the selection of drinks before deciding to stick to the pumpkin spice.

When he was called up he flashed a charming smile. "Good morning! Could I have a Venti PSL please?"

The cashier looked slightly taken aback at the accent that had come from the man but nodded. "Yeah, could I take a name please?"

Archer deepened his smile slightly at the shocked look he was given. "Archer."

"Okay, that'll be $5.45 please" The cashier told him after writing the name on the cup and giving it to the person next to him to make.

"Awesome, thank you" Archer fished out $10 and handed it to the cashier, waited for his change and put it in his pocket as he wandered off to wait.

He waited all of 10 minutes, which wasn't that bad he hadn't minded. When his name was called he took the to-go cup with a thank you and almost knocked into someone as he turned.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry are you okay?" Archer's eyes were wide with panic as they slowly dragged up to meet the face of his Professor.

The professor had an amused smirk on her face. "Just barely, are you okay Mr McCall?"

"U-Uh, yeah. S-sorry Professor." He apologised again and pulled his coffee closer to himself in order to protect it and people around him from it.

"You've said that." Regina pointed out, the smirk twitching into a smile as she caught onto the mans stutter. "How's your assignment coming along, Mr McCall?"

Archer grinned at her, the panic leaving his eyes. This topic he was fine, there was no longer a stutter in his words and he looked - almost excited. "Already over two thousand words, I'm hoping to finish it tonight so I have tomorrow to edit it fully and refine it."

Regina looked at the young man infront of her impressed, not only was he already so far ahead in the assignment, he was already planning for the next stage. "Well, I have to say, I'm impressed Mr McCall. If you need any help don't hesitate to send me an e-mail."

"Of course Professor" Archer's chest filled with pride from what the teacher had said and he felt quite relieved at her words.

"Archer!" Was called from the corner he had been, Belle and Ruby staring at him. "Stop being a teacher's pet, and come help me you dick!" It was Ruby that was shouting.

"Looks like you're needed." The Professor stated, her smirk still amused at the sudden commotion that the barely dressed girl was causing. She also noticed the sudden flush of red that overcame Archer's face.

"If I pretend I don't know them, I might be able to run away." Archie told her, almost trying to hide himself from the public eye. "But she might come over here." Archer rolled his eyes. "Anyway, take care professor, it was nice talking to you."

"It was lovely talking to you too Mr McCall." Regina told him, picking up the coffee that called her name.

Archer waved and made his way to the table, picking up a couple of packets of sugar as he did so, he failed to notice that the Professor then watched as he threw the sugar at the scarcely dressed girl with the words. "The fuck are you doing shouting in starbucks?"

Regina smirked, amused at the interactions of the group and walked out of the Starbucks walking past the window where the group sat.

Archer laid back in his seat as Ruby attempted to dig out a packet of sugar from her bra that had been thrown at her.

"Well you were taking too long." Ruby told him as she finally fished out the sugar packet in her bra.

Archer huffed. "So you had to call me a teacher's pet?"

"It was the only way to get your attention."

"I hate you."

"Awww I love you too."

Archer took a sip of his pumpkin spiced latte. He rubbed his eyes as he thought on what he needed to do for the rest of his short story. Archer hummed and looked at his phone and checked out the time table, he had English Lit later on today. Archer had told himself that the English lit would help him with the creative writing. If he wanted to be an author than he needed to know what made the greats. He wasn't exactly looking forward to it though.

Checking the time he realised that it was 11:00. Every Tuesday and Thursday Archer had Fine art all day and he loved art, it was one of his passions. If he couldn't write he'd draw, paint, sculpt whatever.

"Right let's brainstorm. What you thinking for your story?" Archer looked up to Ruby as he sipped his coffee.


	3. Chapter 3

Obviously I own nothing on her except Geordie, Scouser, Kieran and Archie.

Whatsapp names:

Archie: Archikins

Kate: Scouser

George: Geordie

Kieran: McNobbins

Ruby: Wolfgirl

Belle: BookNerd

David: NotSoCharming

Mary Margret: PeanutM&M

 _Please review!_

Chapter 3

It was 3pm on Tuesday, Archer had finished his fine art lesson and was walking to the starbucks to grab a coffee.

He had sent an e-mail to his professor which read as:

 _Hey Professor Mills,_

 _I was wondering if you could take a look at my assignment, if you weren't too busy trying to scare the life out of your students when they'll trying to get a coffee. I've attached it to this email._

 _Archie_

He had an oversized purple Welcome To Night Vale t-shirt, black slim cut jeans with a pair of black converse on. He didn't have anything on him except of his phone, cigarettes, lighter, wallet and keys which were stuffed into his pockets. There were paint splatters over his t-shirt and jeans and a smudge of blue paint on his cheek.

Archer went to the cashier and smiled. "Hiya! Could I get a venti pumpkin spice latte with an extra shot of espresso please?" Archer asked the cashier and stuffed his hands in pockets. He pulled his wallet out and paid for the coffee and went to the end of the the coffee bar.

It was then that thought back to yesterday, to when he and his creative writing professor had a discussion in the cozy confines of Starbucks. The woman woman who sweeps into Classrooms with the sort of grace that would put a cat to shame. How her heels click sharply against wooden floorboards as she walks with a stride around the room.

"Mr McCall," A deep sultry voice carried over into his mind. Archer jumped, startled. The young man turned to look at the voice to find it was the woman who he had been thinking about. "I hadn't recognised you under all that paint."

Archer stood there in some sort of trance for a moment before realising, _'Shit, I'm staring.'_ he pulled himself out of it slightly and gave the woman a smile. "H-hello Pro-professor," The young man spoke warmly to the woman, taking his hands out from where they had been stuffed into his pockets. Archer ran a hand through his hair and nodded. "I uh, I found I like to immerse myself in paint and, uh, you know, urr, hope for the best."

Regina's lip twitched and turned into a smirk as he looked at man, noticing that the young man's not quite yet beard had grown just a bit. "I was under the impression that paint goes on a canvas and not yourself."

"It's a dying artform." Archer quipped. "Oh! Did you get a chance to look at my assignment Professor Mills?" He asked, his hands at his sides now and he had tilted his body inwardly to pay attention to his unlikely starbucks buddy.

Professor Mills quirked an eyebrow and shook her head. "You haven't sent me anything Mr McCall." She was however surprised that Archer had already finished.

Archer's brows furrow and he dug his iPhone out from his pockets. "That's weird, I was sure…" His british accented voice trailed off as he unlocked the phone and went through his emails and groaned gently. "It would uh, it would _help_ if I actually sent the email." With a click he was greeted by a whooshing sound from his phone, locked it and stuffed it into his pockets.

Regina let out a chuckle, it wasn't spiteful from what Archer could tell but he was definitely wearing a blush from his embarrassment. "I'll take a look at it when I go back to my office." The woman promised the young man and she crossed the floor and picked up her coffee that had just been called.

Archer tried to hide the beam that was trying to take over his face and he nodded. "Thank you, Professor Mills."

"Of course, you're the only student that's asked for my help already." Regina noticed the look that crossed his face as sudden fear. "That's not a bad thing, you're taking it upon yourself to make sure that you're producing the best work you can." The Professor quickly soothed him.

Archer relaxed at what she had said and nodded. "Oh, well then. T-thank you…?" He tried so hard not to make it sound like he was asking a question.

"You're quite welcome Mr McCall." Regina took a sip of her coffee and looked at Archer as he relaxed next to her, and then missed that his name had been called twice already. "Mr McCall, I feel like the barista will have your head if you don't pick your order up." The woman spoke, amusement dancing in her tone as the young man went rigid and mentally berated himself.

"Fuckin' hell..." Murmured under his breath and he shot an apologetic smile at the barista. "Thanks Callum." Archer told him, and made his way back to the woman who was currently wearing an amused smirk.

Regina caught sight of the to-go cup and cocked an eyebrow in question. "I was under the assumption that you didn't like coffee."

"Oh, I quite like coffee, I prefer tea though." Archer informed her when a smirk etched over his lips. "But, US Starbucks make terrible tea."

"Not up to your standards then?" Regina chuckled, her perfectly shaped eyebrow raised.

"As a Brit it's uh, it's rather hard to impress me when it comes to tea. We take it very seriously." Archer quipped. "I have noticed that your pumpkin spice lattes are a lot more sweeter than I'm used to." Archer informed her. "A-and what are you having?" Archer asked the professor as they stood off to the side.

Regina hesitated a moment before she answered. "Just a plain black americano." The professor's phone began to emit the default ringtone. "Sorry, I need to take this. I'll see you in class Mr McCall." The woman spoke quicker than she normally would and answered her phone, waving at him which he returned.

When Archer finally made it back to Astor house he wandered into the kitchen and sat down on a plastic chair, propping his legs on the table as he opened the group chat.

 _Archikins: Hey bitches, who's home?_

 _Book nerd attached a photo. It was a picture of herself and M &M together._

 _BookNerd: I am, want to come up?_

 _Archikins: Yeeeeess, be there in a sec_

 _Scouser: I'm at the RabbitHole with Ruby. Go make some friends._

 _Archikins: Go suck some dick._

 _Wolfgirl: That's why we're here!_

Archie rolled his eyes and locked the phone, dragging his feet off the table and standing up. Archie made his way through the kitchen which was also attached to a living room, lightly jogged up the stairs and knocked on Belle's door, the closest door to the stairs.

"Get in here." Came a voice from inside and he opened the door and wandered in, sitting himself down on Belle's bed with a soft sigh.

"Guess who I ran into today." Archie told them, bringing his arms up to cross behind his head as he leant back onto the brunette's bed.

M&M, or Mary Margaret turned to look at him along with Belle, waiting for him to give them the information they wanted.

"Was it Professor Mills again?" Belle asked him, taking a note of where she was in her textbook and closed it. She looked at him to see he was sporting a small grin. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Yeah! I was minding my own business in starbucks because gotta get dat caffeine." Archer told them and rolled onto his side to look at them, his elbow propping his head up. "And I made a complete dickhead of myself because one, I just stared at her after she spoke to me and then started stuttering and made an even more of a dickhead of myself by asking her if she had seen my assignment and she was like ' _nah bitch, haven't got any shit from your crusty british arse_ ' BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEND HER THE E-MAIL!" Archer rubbed his face with his free hand and groaned into it.

The two girls looked at each other and laughed. "Well, knowing Professor Mills, she probably didn't say that-"

"She might as well as done!" Archer exclaimed, a small laugh coming from his mouth.

Belle laughed and shook her head. "What was she wearing."

"One of those intimidating power suits, a black one with a red blouse on." Archer caught himself and looked off into the distance. He shouldn't have remembered that much detail on this professor.

"Sounds to me like you've got it bad Archie." M&M told him, smiling when he looked at her with a shocked expression.

"N-No!" Archer exclaimed and he sat up to look at their smug faces. "I-it's not like that, she's just u-uh i-intimidating, that's all."

"And she's so intimidating that you stutter and blush like a schoolgirl when you're around her or talking about her?" Belle questioned him, the smug smile deepening as she looked at him.

"I-I do not stutter!" Archer huffed, already knowing that he stuttered in that sentence. "Whatever"

Belle rolled her eyes and crossed her legs. "Do you guys want to get dinner together?" She decided not to pry anymore information from Archer and went about a new direction.

"I'm down for dinner, I finished all my assignments." Archer informed them and crossed his legs. If an email came through from Professor Mills then he could do it when he came back.

M&M nodded and smiled. "I can do dinner, should we ask the group?" M&M asked as she pulled out her phone.

 _PeanutM &M: Hey Belle and Archie asks who's up for dinner tonight?_

 _Geordie: I'm down, should I come to Belle's?_

 _Scouser: Ruby and I are at the Rabbit Hole, no dinner for us :c_

 _NotSoCharming: Are you going M &M?_

 _Geordie: CAN SOMEONE ANSWER ME PLEASE._

 _PeanutM &M: Yeah, do you want to?_

 _BookNerd: Geordie We'll meet downstairs at 5pm in the living room, Archie needs to sort himself out._

 _Geordie: Archie always needs to sort himself out_

 _Archikins: It's true, I'm a mess._

 _NotSoCharming: Yeah if you're going M &M, I'll go_

 _Archikins: Am I not enough for you to come to dinner with us? That's fucking rude._

 _Geordie: It is rude, what are we, chopped liver?_

 _Archikins: Fucking yanks._

 _NotSoCharming: No that's not it!_

 _Archikins: Likely story!_

Archie laughed. "Right, Kieran never answers his whatsapp, he just ignores them so, I'll go knock on his door."

Belle nodded. "Alright, I'll put some jeans on." Belle had been wearing her PJ pants again.

Archer nodded. "I need to get clothes that don't have paint on them so, see you downstairs later!" Archer jumped off the bed and made his way to the door opening it, waving and made his way down the hallway. "Kieran!" The young man shouted.

There was silence, so Archer shouted again on the way to the room. "Kieran, you shit." He knocked on the door and the door opened to reveal a man the same height as Archie. He had only a little stubble with very light brown almost blond hair. Kieran had brown eyes. The man was wearing a pair of North Face jogging bottoms and a plain black hoodie.

"What's up sexy?" Kieran asked, his voice had the same base of accent of Archie but sounded more common and uneducated, whilst Archie sounded more pretentious and uptight. Kieran was from Slough and there was a stark contrast on their accents.

"Dinner?" Archie asked and leant against Kieran's doorframe.

"I'm down." Kieran said as he moved into his room.

Archie nodded. Kieran and himself had gone to high school together and had been friends since. "Good, I'm going to get dressed and we're all meeting downstairs in the kitchen."

Kieran nodded and looked at the time. "Got an hour then, haven't ya bruv?"

"How will I _ever_ cope?" Archie called as he made his way down the hall to get to the stairs, bending his back to look at Kieran as the door closed.


	4. Chapter 4

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 4

The group of six had gone in two cars, Archer went with Kieran who could drive, along with belle, whilst Geordie drove himself along with the couple M&M and David.

Everyone had gotten ready and Archie had trimmed his beard to have light stubble as well as gotten changed and wiped paint from his face. They were all settled around a booth in the Diner that Ruby worked at and was owned by her grandmother, Granny.

Belle had ordered a chicken caesar salad, Archie, Geordie and Kieran had gotten burgers and fries, but Archer opted for sweet potato fries. M&M had gotten the lasagna whilst David had gone with a Philly cheesesteak.

None of them had noticed that a certain brunette with goddess-like grace had entered the Diner and gone to the counter.

"Sweet potatoes are overrated," Geordie said as he ate his own normal fries.

Archer shot him a look and made the grand gesture of moaning loudly as he ate a sweet potato chip. "Bitch, sweet potato chips are the best and I will fucking fight you on this."

Belle rolled her eyes and laughed along with the group. "Children, we're out." Belle reprimanded lightly with a smile over her lips.

"This is why we can't have nice things, Archie," Kieran said, eating his own plate of food. "You can definitely tell you did drama at school."

"And when your mother came to see my performance, she cried," Archer announced proudly

"At how bad you were." Kieran quipped quickly.

Geordie grabbed hold of the Eton boy who went to smack Kieran upside the head. "Why can't we have a nice family dinner without you two southerners causing a scene."

"Uncultured northern swine." Archie laughed and rolled his eyes. "Right, I'm going for a cigarette, who's coming?"

"Come on then, posh twat."

Kieran and Archie stood up and with some shifting around the were out of the booth. "Does anyone need a drink refill whilst we're out?"

Belle nodded and held up her glass. "Could you get me a diet coke please."

"Of course," Kieran reached over and grabbed the glass and went to the counter, catching the eye of a woman that had been looking at Archie every so often. He smiled at her, which was returned and ordered a new diet coke that he would take to the booth after.

Archie however, still oblivious to the fact that she was here, had strutted his way outside, a cigarette already in his mouth and ready to be lit with his lighter. He opened the door and made his way out into the light rain.

Archie lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply once he got outside, he felt the smoke riddled with tar and cancer fill his lungs. He exhaled, watching as the smoke danced in the wind and rain before slowly disappearing.

Archie smokes for what seemed like twenty minutes but it had been ten seconds. The door behind him rung and he assumed it was Kieran so, he moved slightly to make room for him under the slight shelter they had.

There was no talking, the only noises that hung in the air around them was rain on the pavement, cars rushing past and the constant buzz of people in the diner. Archie closed his eyes and took a long drag of the contaminating cigarette. Allowing god knows what to enter his body and leave their mark, darkening and weakening his lungs.

"Smoking causes cancer, Mr McCall."

" _Jesus fucking Christ!"_ Archie jumped at the voice, coughing on the smoke he had just inhaled. Startled for the second time that day, holding his chest with one hand he looked over to the amused face of Regina Mills.

"Professor Mills, you have _got_ to stop scaring me," Archer told her and leant back onto the wall, catching his breath from the scare. That was definitely not Kieran.

Regina's smirk grew, rather amused at the reaction she had gotten. "I would, but the reactions I get from you are rather amusing." The Professor told him as she sauntered away and into a car. Archie had noticed after he had stared (drooled more accurately) at her arse, that she was carrying a white bag with the words 'Granny's Diner' proudly displayed on it. The last thing he noticed was that the car was black Mercedes-Benz AMG GT C Roadster.

Archie then proceeded to drool over the car.

The door behind him rang again, but he didn't care. He watched as the car pulled out with expert precision and left the car park it had been in.

"What's up with you and that woman?" Kieran asked him as he lit his own cigarette, standing next to Archie under the small cover in the form of a slightly protruding roof.

The two smoked their cigarettes and it was only a minute of silence that they shared before Archie spoke. "She's my Professor, that's all."

"Sounds like more than that fam," Kieran told him and Archie shrugged in response to the statement. "Pretty hot though, right?" Kieran asked him and a small smirk appeared over his lips when Archie turned around and shot him a look.

"Your blatant objectification of women astounds me," Archie told him.

"Or, you're upset because you're jealous."

Archie scoffed and threw the cigarette bud away, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "You ready?"

"I'll see you in there." Kieran waved him off as he took his phone out.

Archie opened the door and walked back to the group and slid into the booth as someone passed down his burger to where he was at the end.

Once everyone was done eating, they chattered lightly and got in a round of beers except for Kieran and Geordie who got a half pint instead so they were still able to drive. The Diner buzzed with life, and music hung in the air from the jukebox that looked like it had been there for decades.

Geordie announced that he needed to grab milk before the store closed, standing up and the group put in the money to pay for their outing. The group waved at Granny and their waitress, expressing their gratitude for the food.

The light rain poured around them as they made their way to the two cars, making sure not to get run over or scratch the paintwork on any cars as they wandered the wet wasteland of metal carcasses.

"Geordie will you grab me some chocolate milk please?" Archie called when he got to Kierans, seeing Geordie give him the thumbs up. "Cheers lad!" Archie took the back seat this time, allowing Belle to have the shotgun. The drive was mostly silent except for music that blared in the car, which could have been mistaken for an indoor concert if they were honest.

Kieran had returned to his room whilst Archie had gone to his own room, quickly followed by Belle who had retrieved her textbooks to study.

Archie was known to keep his door open with a crate of beer when he was home, music usually playing from his laptop as he studied. It was normal for the other members of the dorm to join him, drink a beer together, study or just hang out together. Archie didn't make the assumption that people wanted to talk to him, he was more than happy to just work in the same room as someone else.

Sometimes the living room wasn't the best place to be and they acknowledged that it was an unofficial rule that studying wasn't allowed to happen in the living room, it was for drinking, loud music and drugs. Usually hosted by either Geordie or Ruby.

Archie sat at his desk, one of his feet pulled up on the chair as the other hung off dejectedly. Starting up the laptop that was perfectly placed he opened his email.

"Oh shit. Belle, she's replied!" Archie told her, excitement lighting up his eyes.

"Oh, and you haven't got a crush on her no?" Belle asked him as she looked up from reading her book. Belle had taken up residence on Archie's bed and was currently wearing one of his throws over her shoulders.

Archie flushed in response and looked at her, his bottom lip jutting out in a pout at her detective skills. "Shut up Belle." Archie huffed out at her, jokingly, of course, that was their friendship.

"Read it out then McCall!" Belle commanded scooting off the bed and making her way to stand behind him and lean over his shoulder.

" _Dear Mr McCall,_

 _I did happen to find some time out of my busy schedule of scaring my unsuspecting students when they go for coffee._

 _This is some great progress and very well written prose fiction. I have made comments on your document and made some minor edits to the document._

 _Best Regards,_

 _Professor Mills."_

Belle looked at Archie with a confused expression, eyebrow arched and yet a small smirk played over her lips as she looked at the young man. "Are you having playful banter with the University's most intimidating Professor?"

Archie looked at her and shrugged, a soft pink blush spreading over his cheeks. "We're just being friendly, that's all."

The moment was interrupted as Geordie made his way into the room picking up a can of beer as he did so. The Newcastle native placed a carton of chocolate milk on the other man's desk. "What are you two gossiping about?"

"Archie's crush on Professor Mills." Belle informed him, an amused smile playing over both of their faces.

"I haven't got a crush on Mills!" Archer tried to persuade the duo that was in his room.

Geordie cracked opened his can of beer, there was a fizz as the can gave out the pressure from the carbonisation. The Newcastle native leant against the desk as Belle made her way back to Archie's bed. There was a calm feel to the air as the three hung in the Eton boy's room.

"Having known you for a while, I know for a fact that this is what you're like when you have a crush on someone." Geordie informed Archie and let out a chuckle at Belle's scoff from the corner of the room.

Archie waved him off and opened up the document and quickly edited it, amending any sentences he could and taking the suggestions on the comment boxes to better the prose fiction assignment.

It had been an hour when Archie finally looked up from his work, his brows furrowing when his room was darkened considerably. Geordie had vacated his room and left two empty cans on his desk, he gave a huff and stood up. Archie made his way slowly to the light switch and flipped it and suddenly light erupted from the ceiling.

Archie picked up a small rubbish bin and went around the room collecting beer cans. He looked around the room to make sure there was nothing else he needed to throw out before putting the bin down.

Archie picked up the carton of chocolate milk and placed it in the mini fridge under the desk, he was thankful for the university for supply the of room mini fridges as well as the fridge in the kitchen.

Belle looked up to see that Archie was tidying and putting things away, she followed his movement around the room.

Archie flopped onto the his bed and stretched his arms out. "Do you want to get drunk?" Archie asked her, rolling onto his side to look at the brunette.

Belle closed her book and crossed her legs under herself as she thought about it. "Let's do it." Belle conformed and pulled out her phone.

 _BookNerd: House party?_

 _Geordie: I have weed?_

 _Archikins: The fuck are you doing not sharing that_

 _McNobbins: I have weed and vodka_

 _Archikins: Oh shit, Kieran actually came on the group chat_

 _PeanutM &Ms: I have tequila still_

 _BookNerd: House party in the living room!_

Archie grabbed his Bluetooth soundbar and headed to the living room. "Grab the beers Belle!" He called over his shoulder, getting to the living room he quickly plugged the soundbar in and began to play house music at the top volume.


	5. Chapter 5

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 5

Archie was drunk. That much he was certain about, the group of dorm mates were in the living room, Scouser and Ruby had returned home. Their neighbours had joined them after hearing the music vibrating through the walls and windows. The front door was also open showing that they were indeed having a house party.

Archie stumbled his way into his room, he didn't know what time it was, but he was pretty sure he needed a drink of water. The music had made its way into his room, the world around him wasn't stable. He could tell that he was in a euphoric state, he had no fear and no more problems. Archie could no longer remember what his problems were as he stumbled his way to his MacBook and checked the time, 1 am.

Archie thought back to the Monday and remembered that he had 12 hours until his lesson with Professor Mills. Archie stumbled back to his door and locked it so there was no chance in someone coming into his room whilst he slept.

He couldn't comprehend that he needed to take his clothes off and barely managed to put his phone on charge. It had then taken all of his drunken concentration to put on a loud alarm to go off at 11 am. Later that day.

Archie had positioned himself to currently be laying on his stomach, was half on the bed and half on the floor and within moments he was out cold.

Archie bolted upright at the screeching sound that came from next to him. He groaned and turned the alarm off and slid to the floor in protest of being awake at that point. Was it bad if he skipped that lesson? No, he couldn't skip on the first week that would be a bad move considering that he needed to make a good impression.

Archie let out a louder more intense groan and sat up on his backside before pushing himself from the floor and shuffled his way to the kitchen in order to get a drink of water.

When he came across the living room he squinted as an unknown man was laying on the couch. Archie looked into the kitchen, seeing Ruby he pointed at the unknown man and mouthed 'The fuck?'

Ruby shrugged and pulled out a water bottle from the fridge and set it on the counter. Archie shuffled his way into the kitchen and took the water bottle, opening it up and downing half of the water bottle.

Archie had then finally noticed that Ruby was in nothing but an oversized t-shirt.

"I don't want to go to class." Archie mumbled and leant against the counter in protest and hopefully stabilising himself against the whirring that his head was doing. "Fuck man, what did I have last night?"

"You had a lot of tequila." Ruby informed him, looking at him over her own bottle of water.

Archie groaned and felt a sudden wish to be sick wash over him. "Don't say that word for a day, fucking hell. I blacked out before I could do my hangover cure."

"What's your hangover cure?" Ruby asked him, her brows furrowed.

"Before you sleep, down two litres of water and three painkillers," Archie told her and he pushed himself from the counter. "I'm gonna grab a shower, I'll talk to you in a bit." Archie waved and moved through the living room, noticing that there was a mess everywhere and he really didn't want to deal with that later on.

Eh, that's future Archie's problem.

Archie returned to his room after showering, he felt more alive this time. He sat on his bed with his towel wrapped around himself. Picking up his phone he checked the time and then messaged the group chat.

 _Archikins: Geordie you at uni today?_

 _Geordie: Going in an hour, need a lift?_

 _Archikins: Please 3_

 _Geordie: Anything for you my little cabbage 3_

Archie grabbed a pair of burnt orange coloured chinos, a cream, red and brown tartan shirt and a navy blue peacoat. Archie pulled on a pair of dark brown timberland boots. Archer grabbed his MacBook and began to print the assignment off, placing it in the MacBook he shut it and stored it in his bag along with its charger. His bag still had the creative writing book and his pencil case.

After some deliberation, Archie decided to take out his contact lenses and replace them with his glasses. Apparently, it wasn't a good idea to keep your contacts in for a month and sleep in them. With his eyes irritated, he placed his Rayban glasses with a polarized coating on to make them reactive to the sun and when he was in a situation that didn't need any more darkness than necessary.

Archie put his wallet, keys, phone and cigarettes in his pockets and moved out of his room, turning off the light and the locking the door and wandered into the living room, the mystery man gone.

Archie made his way to the kitchen, opened his cupboard and pulled out the pack of painkillers. Pulling a mug out from the cupboard as well, he flicked the switch of the kettle and waited the agonising three minutes for it to boil water. Throwing in a tea bag and two teaspoons of sugar into his mug. After pouring the freshly boiled water he poured milk into it, jumping to sit on the counter, he waited for Geordie to come into the kitchen.

Archie stared out at the whirlpool of broken glass, beer cans and the lingering of smoke that hung in the air of the living room and leaked into the kitchen. Archie watched as the smoke refused to clear, pulling out a pack of cigarettes he placed one between his lips and lit it. He drew the smoke into his lungs and expelled it after a while.

"Why are you smoking in the kitchen?" Came an accented voice. Gruff and yet sounded charming in a way.

Archie looked up to see Geordie walking to the Kitchen. Archie leant over and grabbed a mug after opening the cupboard, he set the mug down next to the kettle. He shrugged at the question and offered his pack of cigarettes, to which Geordie took one and lit it with his own lighter.

Archie then attacked the pack of painkillers, taking out two and putting them in his mouth, washing them down with a gulp of tea.

Geordie went about making his own mug of tea, his movements sluggish. He picked up the painkillers and popped out two for himself and washed them down with a glass of water.

"Figured out a major yet?" Archie questioned the Newcastle native.

Geordie leant against the counter in front of Archie, sipping his own hot tea. "Engineering."

"Sounds about right, nerd." Archie said, a small smirk pulling at his lips. He quickly covered it by drinking another gulp of tea.

"Am I just giving you a lift today?" Geordie asked, refusing to acknowledge the snide comment from his counterpart.

Archie shrugged and let out a yawn. "I think so?" Archie looked down at his tea and couldn't help but feel that his mind was swimming with the haze of lethargy. "I saw Ruby earlier, but there was also some random guy on our couch so who knows."

Geordie let out a chuckle and shook his head.

The air held silence as the duo smoked, looking at the mess that was Astor house. There was also the fact that they might as well as wait for anyone who needed a lift to class, they enjoyed the shared companionship in the silence.

The only noises that filled the air were the inhale and exhale of smoke and sips of tea.

"Right, my little cabbage," Geordie announced, finishing his tea and taking Archie's mug and rinsing them off in the sink. "It's 12:45. We're going."

Archie nodded and jumped off the counter and followed Geordie to his car, getting in the front passenger seat. It had taken them ten minutes before to get to campus, however this time it had taken twenty minutes. Archie was late and he was slightly panicked.

"Thanks, Geordie! See you after class!" Archie called as he all but sprinted through the hallways to the English department and to his classroom. He opened the door and saw the only seats left were at the front. Archie inwardly groaned, ten minutes late to the class to be rumoured to be taught by Satan, and made his way to the front, trying hard to make himself invisible.

Professor Mills didn't speak in words. All she needed was the scalding glare, the look which reduced grown veterans to quivering cowering messes. The look that said 'see me after class' with the promise of a painful death if you didn't.

She had heard all the excuses, all the stories riddled with tall tales and lies. It was useless for Archie to even attempt to make up an excuse, she would rip him apart in a matter of seconds.

"Sorry, Professor Mills." Archie spoke, in a low tone as he got to the front, taking out his MacBook and started up Microsoft Word.

Another scalding glare was sent his way and he knew better than to utter another word for the rest of the lesson. The lesson was centred around the author James Patterson and his writing style.

Archie wasn't much of a fan of the man, but he could appreciate the man's work. Archie knew his mother loved the man and had at least half a bookcase full of his work. Whilst the class began writing a prompt in the style of James Patterson, Professor Mills went around the class collecting the assignments that had been given out on Monday.

Anyone who hadn't completed the work was given the same scalding glare that Archie had been given for being late by ten minutes. The powerful strikes of heels on the hardwood floor was agony for those that were dreading on being caught out on a lie or shoddy excuse as to why they hadn't been able to complete the work.

The smell of musky wood with a trace of vanilla invaded his senses, he was almost scared to look up at the source of the smell.

Archie leant back on his chair and looked up to see the Professor looking at him expectantly. He pulled out his assignment and handed it to the woman. She didn't move though.

They had a stared at each other, silence hardened around them and Archer could have sworn the temperature had dropped.

"Mr McCall, where is Miss Lucas today?" The sultry voice asked him, the first time in the whole lesson that she had spoken to him.

Archie looked at her and almost broke. Almost told her that Ruby was hungover and barely alive from the alcohol in her system. "I don't know Professor, I haven't seen her today."

Professor Mills arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow and her honey eyes hardened to whisky. There were no words, but she made no move to leave from her place in front of Archie's desk.

Archie shuffled under her stare and at that moment he knew that she knew he had lied. "Y-Yes Professor?" Archer inwardly swore. He had stuttered, she would definitely know he was lying now.

Regina Mills moved, placing her free hand on Archie's desk and her stare was unwavering in her silent interrogation, she leant down slightly, her eyebrow arching impossibly high.

Archie bit his lip and averted his gaze, Professor Mills was right for her interrogation and he couldn't fault her in that, he had just wished it wasn't him under her gaze. "S-She's sick…?" It came out more like a question and whilst it technically wasn't a lie he felt the stare narrow and intensify. "H-Hungover, P-p-professor Mills," Archer informed her, his voice quiet as he called himself a pussy in his mind for giving up so easily.

A small smirk appeared over Regina's lips and she stood up to her full height. "Thank you, Mr McCall." Professor Mills's tone was curt and she looked at him once more as he snuck a look at her. "After class." She knew that Archie would know to stay after class and she moved to the last three students.

With the last of the assignments collected she strutted her way back to her desk, perching herself on the edge, crossing one leg over the other she looked over at the class. "Alright class, I want you to read a James Patterson book of your choice and write up a one-page summary. Any Questions?" Professor Mills looked over the class with her terrifying interrogation stare. "No? Good. You're dismissed."

Everyone began packing their things and Archie made sure to go slow with packing up his MacBook, making a note to skype call with his mother to get a summary of a James Patterson book.

Archie texted Geordie of his misfortune.

 _Archikins: Geordie I'm going to be late, Mills is going to skin me alive  
_

 _Geordie: I'll wait in the car, I'll grab coffee for us._

 _Archikins: Thank you 3_

Archie looked up just as the last students left the lecture hall, locking his phone he placed it in his pockets and he looked up to Professor Mills.

"Mr McCall," Professor Mills drawled. The goddess woman was still perched on the desk, and if she were to move just slightly he would get a perverts dream of what her skirt was hiding. "What's your excuse for being late?"

Archie groaned softly. "I hadn't taken into account of the lunch rush and left the house too late." He truthfully told her, pulling his bag over his shoulder.

"Do I look like a woman who wastes her time, Mr McCall?" The Professor asked him.

"N-no, Professor."

"That's right." Regina agreed and hopped off the desk and strolled to Archie's desk, placing both hands on the desk and looking at him with her terrifying stare. "And if you plan on wasting my time then you will make up for the lost time."

Archie squirmed slightly under her gaze but didn't break eye contact with the woman. "H-How?"

Regina smirked at him, it was slightly twisted. "Every time you're late then you'll owe me a day as my assistant."

Archie furrowed his brows. "I-I was ten minutes late!" Archie exclaimed, frowning slightly. Don't get him wrong, spending time with the Professor wasn't that bad, but the fact that he was being made to work hours unpaid for ten minutes was a little uncalled for.

Professor Mills arched an eyebrow and her whisky eyes were boring into him. "And I am your Professor so if you don't like my rules, you can withdraw from my class."

Archie didn't speak, he did stew over the fact. Archie loved writing and he would just have to suck it up. "F-fine."

"Good. Come to my office at 7 am tomorrow morning. I know you have Fine Art until 3 pm, you can resume your work as my assistant an hour after." Professor Mills gave him the instructions.

"Stalking me Professor Mills?" Archie asked, apparently growing some kind of confidence. Confidence that the Professor probably wouldn't agree with.

Regina arched her brow once more and looked at him, and from how close she was from his face he could see a small scar on her top lip. "I believe that's called wishful thinking, Mr McCall."

Archie scoffed, a small smirk playing over his lips. "You've figured me out."

"It wasn't that hard, Mr McCall." Professor Mills stated a smile over her lips. "You can go, Mr McCall."

"I'll bring coffee," Archie promised and stood up, and he swaggered his way to the lecture hall's door. "Bye, Professor Mills." Giving the woman a wave he went towards the car park, pulling his phone out.

 _Archikins: On the way to the car!_


	6. Chapter 6

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 6

Archie found himself once again outside Belle's door, knocking on the white wood. Geordie and himself had just gotten back from university, and he needed someone to talk to about what had just happened to him and more importantly, what he was going to wear tomorrow.

The door was thrown open by Belle who was looking great considering there had been a massive house party the night before. They stared at each other.

Belle's eyebrow arched in a question. _What happened?_

 _Bitch, guess the fuck what happened._ Archie's looked answered her.

 _Oh shit. Was it bad?_ Belle's stare questioned him.

 _Bitch you thought this was bad?_ Archer's look exclaimed.

Belle moved to allow him into the room and it shut behind them as Archie all but threw himself on Belle's bed. "Oooh! Brushed cotton, niiiiice." Archie rolled onto his side as Belle sat next to him, crossing her legs under herself.

"Shut up about the brushed cotton. What happened? Do I need to cut a bitch?" Belle questioned him, her warm blue hues staring at Archie's own piercing ice blue eyes.

"So," Archie began. "I was ten minutes late to Mills's lesson, right?"

"I'm going to stop you right there and call you an idiot," Belle stated. "You can't just be late to Mills's lesson, you're better off just not turning up!"

"I feel like that's not a good idea otherwise it would have been worse." Archie deadpanned. "Anyway. During the lesson, she all but interrogated me about Ruby not being in the lesson." Archie explained, sitting himself up and rubbing the brushed cotton covers that were under him. He made a note to buy some of these later on. "And I cracked because oh god Belle, her arched eyebrow and her stare I couldn't."

"So what you're saying is, is that you're hella weak when it comes to Mills." Belle scoffed, a chuckle coming from her lips.

"Yes. Okay, fine yes." Archie rolled his eyes. "And long story short for being ten minutes late, _ten minutes_! I have to be her assistant tomorrow."

Belle looked at him, mouth slightly agape. "What?"

"Yeah, as in 7 am at her office until class and then again at 4 until she dismisses me. Because I was late by _**ten minutes**_!"

"Part of me wants to say that it's your fault for being late," Belle admitted and watched as he stroked her covers. "Stop that. But also part of me wants to say, what a bitch."

Archie didn't stop his stroking of the brushed cotton and he let out a groan. "What am I going to wear? I don't even want to wake up that early either, do you reckon she'd hunt me down if I don't turn up?"

"From what I know about Mills, she will most definitely hunt you don't if you don't turn up. Don't tempt her either." Belle told him and shook her head. "Come on let's go find you an outfit that can be used as an office assistant and an art student."

"Should I pack my art clothes in my bag?" Archie questioned her.

"Actually, yes. Do that actually that's a really good idea." Belle agreed with him and stood up, offering her hand for the man to take. When he did they walked down the stairs and down to Archie's room.

Archie unlocked the door and opened it to allow Belle into the room first, he followed in after her. He moved to the window, opened it and proceeded to pull out a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and lit the cancer stick.

He watched as Belle went through his wardrobe, pulling out a navy blue knitted jumper, blue slim/skinny jeans and put them both on the bed, staring at the outfit. She went back to the wardrobe and looked it over and pulled out plain white low top converse and threw them on the bed.

Belle then walked out, holding a finger out to signal that she would be back in a moment.

Archie looked out of the window, exhaling smoke in the opening that the window had created. Watching as the buses went around campus and students wandered around the green that surrounded the dorms. He leant his elbow on the window sill and put his head on his upright hand.

There was a slight breeze and he watched as there were only very little leaves that swirled around causing a rustle that he could hear. There was a sense of tranquillity that surrounded the Astor house. The only break of tranquillity was the rushing of automotive and the soft murmurings of conversations that passed by the window.

He inhaled from the cigarette and flicked the ash outside the window. His lungs expanded and filled with toxins that turned his lungs black and tar-filled. Archie mused on the words people told him, how smoking could kill him or cause cancer or anything of the like, and he appreciated the worry that came with those words. But Archie didn't have a reason to stop. He didn't mind that he corrupted his lungs and he found that he couldn't find the motivation to care.

Archie's musings were broken when Belle came into the room holding up a tan coat and from the look of it, it was Geordie's coat. She placed it on the bed and went back to the wardrobe and pulled out a plain white t-shirt.

"Right there's your outfit, try it on!" Belle demanded and looked at him expectantly as she looked at his confused face.

"Can I not finish my cigarette?" Archie asked, his brows furrowed and his bottom lip jutting out into a confused pout.

"No." Belle stated, looking at him. She placed her hands on her lips as she waited.

"Fucking hell, alright." Archie flicked the cigarette out the window and went to his bed, pulling off his boots and pulled his rust coloured chinos off exposing his dark purple boxers. He grabbed the blue jeans and pulled them up and done the button up.

He threw off the coat and his tartan shirt, pulled on the plain white t-shirt and the navy jumper, slipping on the converse, he looked over to Belle.

"Okay, so, you need to roll up the legs a little. Maybe twice or three times." Belle told him and picked up the jacket.

Archie quickly rolled up the legs of the jeans twice, deciding to roll them once more he looked at Belle expectantly. He moved quickly over to her and put on the tan jacket and went to the mirror to look at the outfit he had on.

"Oh shit, this is a good look. You could go to the bar and get hit on!" Belle told him, looking over her handiwork.

"I like it, it's good!" Archie told her, smiling happily at the brunette bookworm.

"Of course it's good, I picked it." Belle waved him off and checked the time. "I need to go, you good to sort yourself out tonight?"

"Where are you going?" Archie asked her, suspicious of the girl.

"I… I might have a date." Belle admitted, a small smile and a pink blush rising to her cheeks.

"Well shit." Archie threw his arms up in the air. "Why am I just hearing about this?" Archie narrowed his eyes at her, crossing his arms.

"Well, we got drunk." Belle shrugged and smirked. "Plus, you're head over heels for a woman you can't have."

"I am not, hush." Archie wagged a finger at her and huffed. "You home tonight? Text me if you need any help as well by the way." Archie stressed, stuffing his hands his pockets, formulating a plan if Belle would need help. He could probably get Geordie or Kieran to come with him to save Belle.

"I promise I'll text or call you if anything goes wrong or I feel weird," Belle promised, smiling over the fact that Archie was worried about her. It sort of cemented their friendship for her.

They shared a hug and Belle was off out the door with Archie shouting "Use protection!"

Archie then proceeded to set up his MacBook and plugging the charger in. He moved to his door and propped it open with his timberland boots. Before doing anything he changed into his previous outfit. He was about to download an James Patterson audiobook when the Skype ringtone sounded from his computer.

Archie pulled his leg up, one of his feet on the chair as he pressed the answer button. The screen turned to a woman with short purple hair and a man with ginger hair and a full beard.

"Archer!" The woman exclaimed, smiling brightly at him. "Craig's here!"

"Hey, mum!" Archie smiled brightly in response. "Hey, uncle Craig!"

"You should be happy I've decided to grace you with my presence on camera." The man said and it was clear that the duo had the same accent except the man identified as Craig had a much deeper voice.

"I'm honoured, Craig." Archie's words had sarcasm dripping off them in waves and he couldn't help but smile at the duo.

"How's America?" The woman asked him, her eyes glistening slightly. "I miss you."

"I miss you too mum, America's okay. Weird, but pretty good. I found this dinner not too far from campus as well, makes amazing milkshakes-" Archie was cut off by the man laughing.

"Archer, you're lactose intolerant." The woman deadpanned.

"When has that stopped him from eating a whole tub of ice cream?" Craig asked the woman.

"I like milkshake and ice cream! Don't judge me you shits!" Archie exclaimed, laughing at the fact they were ripping into him even if they were thousands of miles away from him.

The three were on skype call for an hour and a half, talking about their lives and catching up. Archie's mum recommending the book Witch and Wizard after refusing to do his summary for him (rude). They ended the call with Archie promising to call them the following Saturday if he got his work done. Archie leant back in his chair wiping his eyes of unshed tears, smiling happily.

Archie began downloading the Witch and Wizard kindle book and got a few chapters in on his bed when his phone rang. He answered quickly.

"Archie, I'm in the bathroom. Come to get me please, this guy is creepy as fuck." The rushed whisper of Belle came through the phone and Archie bolted upright.

"I'm on it, where are you?" Archie questioned her as he ran to Geordie's room and banged again the door frantically.

"I'm at Granny's Diner," Belle informed him.

"Okay cool, hang tight stay there till I say," Archie told her. Geordie's door was thrown open and Geordie looked worried. Archie put the phone down "Belle might be in trouble, she's at Granny's -"

"Say no more!" Geordie grabbed his keys from his messy desk, and rushed out, neither of them locking the door, they moved past the living room to see Scouser hanging out in the mess. "Scouser make sure no one goes in our rooms!"

Without waiting for a response the duo sprinted to Geordie's car and within seven minutes - due to breaking the speeding limit - they swerved to a stop. Archie called Belle. There was no Answer. "Stay here." Archie threw the door open and rushed into Granny's not bothering to look at the other occupants.

One look to Granny, she pointed to a booth to a very uncomfortable Belle and a creepy guy touching her thigh. Archie had an air of incandescent rage that hung over him. If anything had happened then it was obvious that Granny hadn't been present for the duration, otherwise, the woman would have kicked his arse.

"Belle," Archie spoke calmly, but he seemed to shake with anger, Belle clambered out, clearly shaken up. "Did he touch you?" He asked the girl who answered him with a slight nod.

"Who the fuck are you?" The man slurred, his bleached blonde hair slicked back.

Archie turned around, and he almost growled. Without a second thought or hesitation, he threw his fist into the man's face. "Touch my sister again, and I'll fucking end you. You rapist piece of shit." Archie turned to Belle, gently leading her out of the Diner catching the attention of Regina Mills and virtually everyone else in the now silent Diner. His knuckles bruised and bleeding some from where he had punched.

"Come back here and fight me like a man!" The man shouted his words slurring, and he was struggling to get to his feet. His eye already swelling up and darkening.

Archie opened the door for Belle and pointed to where the car had swerved to a stop. When Belle had left the Diner he turned to the man. "You ain't a fucking man, you inbred swine. Touch another woman like that again, see what happens. Back the fuck up cunt." Archie spat, nodded to Granny and briskly left the Diner. Catching up with Belle, who was getting into the back, he shut the front passenger door and got into the back with Belle.

Belle hugged him and the two stayed like that until they came back to Astor house and the three stayed in Belle's room with the promise they'd stay the night on the floor so she'd feel safe.


	7. Chapter 7

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 7

The time was 5:30 am and Archie snuck out of Belle's room knowing Geordie was still there, he sent a message to Belle telling her that he'll meet her for lunch if she wanted. He went downstairs and grabbed his towel, shower things and his outfit for the day before going back upstairs to shower quickly and get dressed.

Archie went to his room put and his towel and shower things away. Grabbing his bag and dumping his art clothes into the bag along with his charger, wallet, cigarettes and lighter. Before picking his bag up he took out his first aid kit from his wardrobe that his mother insisted he bought, thanking the gods he had listened, and began to patch up his knuckles. Due to not having much experience with fighting his knuckles weren't strong enough to not get cut or scabbed. Collecting his keys on the way out he switched the light off and locked up his room. Archie wandered his way to Professor Mills's office.

He checked the time when he got to the Starbucks on campus, 6:40. That was more than enough time. He ordered coffee and paid, then was on his route to Regina's office.

He arrived at 6:58 and knocked on the door briskly, opening it after being told to 'Come in' he entered the room and flashed the woman a smile. "I come bearing gifts!" Archer told her, placing a black americano in front of the woman, he set his bag down by a leather sofa and looked at her.

"Good morning Mr McCall, it seems that you are able to keep track of time." Professor Mills quipped, a small smirk over her lips. "Thank you for the coffee dear."

"Y-you're welcome," Archie spoke, his stomach in a knot from the woman's term of endearment, he had never been called that before. Archie looked up at her expectantly. "So, as your assistant, what do you need me to do?"

"Before we get to that, what happened at the Diner yesterday?" Regina questioned him.

"Out of respect of my friend, I don't want to discuss that," Archie stated adamantly, whilst he had broken before about Ruby being hungover, he had no intention of breaking over this. Belle deserved privacy and respect about what had transpired the night before and he wouldn't move on that. Archie kept secrets, and he kept things he deemed important a secret unless otherwise stated differently. "In any case, how do you know about that?"

Regina smiled lightly at the loyalty that Archie had shown before leaning back. "It was quite hard to miss when I heard you shouting and then progressing to punch a man in the face like a delinquent." The Professor explained and glanced over to the man as he was leaning against an armrest of one of her leather sofas, taking note of the bandaged hand of the young man in front of her. "And then continuing to shout after your friend had left."

Archie smirked. "D-don't try to change the fact that I've figured out your stalkerish behaviour, M-Mills." He took a sip of his pumpkin spiced latte, covering the fact that he was indeed smirking. Archie was quite satisfied with himself.

"You seem to have a delusion that I'm stalking you, McCall " Regina recognised, a small smirk dancing across her own lips as she noticed him trying to hide the fact he was pleased with himself. "As I've asserted before what you're taking as stalking is wishful thinking, I have better things to do with my time." Regina then waved her hand over to a collection of filing cabinets. "Now that you've finished going off on a tangent, you can proceed to order those files alphabetically by the last name."

Archie nodded, still pleased with himself. "Yes, Professor Mills." Still holding his pumpkin spiced latte he moved to one of the filing cabinets and began ordering them the way she wanted. Taking a sip of his latte every so often, his eyes made sure that his alphabet was correct when he had sorted out the files.

He took his time with the files, his hand aching from being moved so much and his mind needing a nap already. Archie wasn't used to having woken up so early.

There was a knock at the door, Archie's head shooting up at the noise and he turned to study Professor Mills. Who looked at him with an identical perplexed look. It was just after 7 am, who was demanding her attention at just a time? Regina made a wave of her hand for him to continue what he was doing.

"Come in!" Regina summoned the person behind the knock, her tone laced with authority and… annoyance was that?

The door opened unveiling a man who had unimportant stubble dusted over his jaw and light brownish hair. The gentleman - if you could call him that - wore a grey hoodie, a darker shade of grey slim cargo pants and a black leather jacket. All in all, Archie's evaluation he looked slightly homeless, if not then a lot homeless. "Regina! I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee."

Regina Mills looked disinterested, if not slightly harassed. "Professor Hood, as you can see I'm currently looking after one of my tardy students."

Archie didn't comment but somewhat stewed at the words. Ten minutes! He hadn't kicked a dog for fucks sakes!

"I'm sure he'll be fine on his own!" The man asserted, a smile over his features as if he didn't quite recognise that the woman had said no.

"I'm sorry, Mr Hood but I am busy," Regina stated and she was consistent in her decision.

"Well, what about later, after classes Regina?" The man, Professor Hood suggested. Flashing her a brilliant smile, which to Archie's conclusion wasn't as good as his.

Archie knew better than to interrupt the conversation - if that's what this was - and sneakily sent a glance to Professor Mills. He knew that she didn't need assistance for this man, in fact, she had leant back in her leather swivel chair and crossed one leg over the other. Revealing the black skin tight dress she was wearing. There was a grey blazer over her chair. Professor Mills seemed ready to murder this man.

"Unfortunately, Mr Hood, Mr McCall will be here all day except when I have class," Regina began, her arms leaning on the armrests. "So you'll have to take my original answer as the response to that proposal." When he went to speak again, she held her hand out to gesture the door. "If that's all, Mr Hood, then please leave."

There was a staring match between the two before he all but stormed out, not shutting the door to the office as he did so. Rather passive aggressive if Archie thought about it.

Archie swaggered his way to the door and closed it after the man and observed Regina, fighting to stifle his laughter.

"He seemed nice and persistent," Archie drawled, going back to the filing cabinet that still required his attention. Finishing off the first drawer, he closed it went to the next one down.

Regina scoffed, to which Archie turned around to look at her having heard the noise. "Oh yes, that man does nothing but insists on coffee with me every day."

"And he still hasn't taken the hint?" Archie asked and shook his head. "Good god." Archie thought back to the man, he had picked up the lingering of an accent and he tried to place it.

"I assume not all Nottingham residents assume that no means try again later?" Regina questioned him and cocked an eyebrow at the young man.

"That's where the accents from! He's a scab!" Archie threw his hands in the air, relieved to have the accent placed in his mind.

Regina's eyebrow arched further and there was a disapproving look in her whisky coloured eyes that would make a grown man rethink his words - if he wasn't wrong. "A scab, Mr McCall?"

"Or a Bogger," Archie explained to her and tapped his finger on his chin as he thought about it. "He's from the midlands then." A small smirk played over his lips. "It's the name of the people in the city of Nottingham. Like people from Liverpool are Scousers, Newcastle are Geordies, Etoners are known as tailcoats or penguins"

Professor Mills smiled as she listened to him and his apparent boundless knowledge of British regional nicknames. "How about, someone who lives in the south?"

"Normally there's a whole regional nickname, but for the whole of the south it would be a Southern Fairy," Archie notified her, a grin carved into his face and he leant on the sofa's backrest as he glanced at her. "We aren't known for being hard and the north scares us."

"And yet, you call Nottinghams, scabs?" Regina challenged him, curious about what the man was saying.

Archie's grin turned slightly twisted. "There are very few things that the north and south agree on, but one of those things is that we both hate the Midlands with a burning passion." Archie crossed his arms over his chest and a smirk quirked over his lips. "Especially Brummies."

"Who are the Brummies?" Regina asked, standing up and leaning against her desk.

"Those Birmingham twats," Archie notified her and there was a small chuckle that came from her throat, Archie smiled at the sound and opened the second drawer. "Professor Mills, you aren't allowing me to be a very good assistant." Archie gestured to the drawers.

"As my assistant, you're meant to please me are you not?" Regina asked, cocking an eyebrow at the man.

"I-I mean, y-yeah," Archie stammered, his face flushed at the words that had been uttered by the woman.

"And if I'm having a conversation with you, you are inclined to speak to me, no?" Professor Mills proceeded to challenge the young man in front of her, a small twisted smirk on her face as the young man's face was flushed red.

Archie rolled his eyes, fidgeting just slightly under her gaze but nodded to the older woman. The blue-eyed man then proceeded to cross his arms over his chest once more. "Y-Yes, Professor Mills."

Professor Mills had a corrupted smirk on her face and she enjoyed making the young man squirm, or so it would seem. "So, with that in mind, you're being a good assistant aren't you?"

Archie let out a small sigh, a small downward tilt came over his lips as he admitted defeat. "Yes, Professor Mills."

"Good." Regina moved her arm up to look at the dainty watch on her wrist and checked the time. Almost 8 am. "Carry on with ordering those files and you can leave at 8:50 to get changed for your fine art lessons." A sly grin covered her face.

"W-What do you mean?" Oh shit, did she know? Archie was sure that he wouldn't be found out for having dressed up for the occasion for being an office assistant.

"Oh, I think you know Mr McCall," Regina stated, an eyebrow arched as she looked at him with an unfaltering gaze.

"N-no, I… I d-don't, Professor." Archie stumbled over his words as his Professor took a step closer to him. It was almost like she was stalking like a predator towards its prey.

"Was I not meant to notice the improvement of your art clothes?" Regina asked him and suddenly the two were sharing personal space.

"N-no," Archie felt the temperature drop just slightly and Regina's gaze locked on to his own and his senses were violated by musky wood with tracings of vanilla. Regina didn't have the scalding glare like the day before, no, this was much more intimate.

Archie could feel the Professor's hot breath tickling his skin and he couldn't find the want to move away from the woman. His mind scrambled with thoughts and reasons why this couldn't happen. No, this wasn't happening, the woman didn't think this was intimate, it was just her way of intimidation that had to be it.

Archie cleared his throat. "I-I thought you'd uh, appreciate if I didn't make y-you look bad," Archie confessed a half-truth, it wasn't a lie. He just didn't divulge the other reason.

Regina smirked at his half-truth, of course, she knew there was another reason, but she moved away. She waved her hand telling him to carry on and sashayed her way back to behind her desk.

It wasn't long until clicks of keyboard strokes filled the air, and the young man let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding.

There were no more words spoken until the clock hit 8:50. The silence was comfortable and Archie couldn't bring himself to break it. There was a sense of serenity that rested over them, the smell of old and new books, leather and cherry wood from the bookshelves lulled in the air.

"Mr McCall," Professor Mills called, watching as he finished what he was doing and dragged his head over to look at the woman. "It's 8:50, you can go. I expect you back at 4." The woman dismissed, a small smile etched over her lips as he furrowed his brows at the loss of time.

Archie closed the filing cabinet, picking up his bag he threw it over his shoulder and smiled at her. "Don't miss me too much Professor."

"I'll try not to," Regina quipped back. "Now off with you." The woman shooed him out.


	8. Chapter 8

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 8

Archie was currently sat in the corner of Starbucks with Belle, who was looking great considering. But he knew better, she was hiding her hurt and repressing it. Although it was unhealthy, he could understand what she was doing. Belle understood that Archie would be there when she needed him to be.

The duo was drinking coffee and eating a small lunch. Archie had another hour until he had to be in the fine art studio. He was currently retelling the encounter he had, had with Professor Mills that morning.

Belle listened to him, wanting to hear the story before she made a judgment call on what he should do and from what she could already tell the woman might have found Archie attractive just as much as Archie found himself drooling over her when he was in a faraway land in his mind. She sipped her caramel latte and watched as Archie animatedly retold the story.

His bright blue eyes portraying all the emotions he felt, his coffee sitting forgotten on the table in front of him. Archie's lunch had consisted of a pumpkin spiced latte with three extra shots - obviously, because he was an addict - and two chocolate twists. Archie was definitely the spokesman for healthy eating and wellbeing. Then again, Belle had seen him down cold coffee in a matter of seconds so she wasn't that worried about it being forgotten.

"And then, she just shooed me out of her office!" Archie finished his story, crossing his legs underneath himself as he leant forward, picked up his coffee and took a huge gulp as he looked to his best friend for answers. Or at the very least, her conclusion.

Belle took a sip of her latte before speaking, studying him and the big lopsided grin that spread over his features. The young man could try and tell her regularly he didn't do emotions but he definitely wore his heart on his sleeve. "Well firstly, Professor Hood sounds like a dickhead." Belle deadpanned.

"Secondly, maybe she's attracted to you as well. She was very up close and personal, to the point she was actually breathing on you." Belle assessed the situation and waited for Archie to rebuke her evaluation but nothing came. It appeared that Archie was speculating along the same lines as herself, or at the very least wishing for it to be true.

Archie took another gulp of his coffee and hoped that the caffeine to kick in soon, he required it. He didn't know when he was next going to be able to sleep or if he'll get an adequate amount considering he still needed to finish reading Witch and Wizard and then write up a summary. The young man made a mental note to pick up a pack of energy drinks from the shop - well, store actually - after being held prisoner by the creative writing Professor.

Archie let out a groan. "What do I do? Am I reading this wrong?" The young man questioned his friend who looked rather amused, he brought his hand to his face, raising the glasses that had been perched on his nose and rubbed his eyes in annoyance. Leaning his back against the backrest behind him and tilting his head back. Nothing was making sense with this woman. Well, they were, but he didn't know how to proceed or if he was reading too much into the signs. He frowned.

Belle took a sip of her coffee and looked at him. "Well, why don't you ask her for coffee? You can play it off as a thing friends do, if things go wrong. But if not, then it'll be fine because, hey coffee date." Belle suggested and watched as he stopped rubbing in his eyes and sat upright to look at her in astonishment.

"I hadn't even thought about that," Archie admitted and he blinked at how much of a bellend he was for not thinking about that. Of course, coffee! Belle and he did that often, along with Geordie, Scouser and Ruby. "I'll ask her tonight!" Archie exclaimed, a grin spreading over his face. "Belle you're a fucking genius! Thank you!" He reached over and hugged her tightly and leant back into his seat.

"Oh, I know," Belle stated, a smug, shit eating smirk plastered onto her face as she took the compliment easily. "By the way, I'm going to the bookstore after you go back to class, do you want anything?"

"Oh actually, could you pick me up a copy of Witch and Wizard by James Patterson?" Archie asked her, pulling his best puppy eyes in order to get his way. Archie pulled out his wallet and gave the girl a twenty dollar note.

Belle waved him off. "Don't worry about it, I'll just get you to buy me a book later on," Belle assured him and pushed the paper note back to the young man.

"Are you sure?" Archie wanted to make sure that she was okay with paying for a book for him, even if he knew that she would ask for a book back in about fives days due to her book addiction.

"Of course I'm sure. Now stop trying to be polite, it doesn't suit you." Belle teased him, picking up her panini and taking a bite of it.

The rest of the lunch hour was spent discussing their classes and Belle made no move to speak about what had happened the night earlier and once again, Archie didn't breach the subject either, it wasn't his place.

After sending Belle off with a hug, he made his way to fine art class. He was late by ten minutes because of the traffic jam of students that were striving to get to lessons. He strolled into the studio, made an apology that lacked any kind of sincerity and got back to his painting he was working on.

When class was completed he made his way to the nearest toilets and promptly changed, cleaning his face from any paint that had been there and strolled over to the quad where Belle had told him to meet her.

Archie laid on the floor peering up at the grey sky that held little to no sun, his bag behind his head. Pulling out a cigarette he lit it and inhaled the smoke. The chattering of students filled the air as people went to dorms or to another lesson and some of the night students wandered in to go to the library that stayed open at every hour.

The wind swirled around him and he flicked ash into it. There was a clearing of the throat and he looked over to the source to see Scouser starting to sit down. She was wearing black vans, black slim jeans that had been rolled a couple of times and a hoodie from vans as well. Kate, otherwise known as Scouser, just wasn't Kate without her vans.

"Alright lad?" The scouse accent was strong and yet it was much more understandable than some of the other scouse accents he had heard before.

Archie's lips pulled into a smile. "Alright Scouser, how's it hanging?"

The girl grimaced at the expression. "Good god, you've been in America for all of two weeks and you're already picking up their catchphrases."

Archie let out a laugh and sat himself up, inhaling from the cigarette and blowing out away from them. Scouser didn't smoke and she also disliked the smell of smoke. "Just answer the question, melt."

Scouser looked at him as if he had stabbed her. "The fuck did you just call me scally?"

"You heard." Archie seemed proud of himself and shrunk slightly as the girl, who was younger than him by a year, sent him a murderous look that promised a painful death.

Archie was saved from the promise of death when Belle crossed the quad to sit down with the duo, carrying two bags with her. She smiled at the two and pulled out two books, Witch and Wizard hardback for Archie and Illuminae for Scouser, it was paperback. Belle and Archie both knew that she hated hardback books.

"Arrr, Belle you're a life saver. I lost this book on the way over here." Kate said, taking the book and holding it close.

"I try my best!" Belle quipped, smiling at Kate. "Archie you know it's 3:55 right?" The Aussie asked the tailcoat, a smirk on her lips as his eyes widened.

"Fuck!" He grabbed the book, depositing it in his bag and jumped up. Looking at his cigarette he realised there was nothing left except the bud and launched it off to the side. "Thanks for the book Belle, I need to go! See you at the house!" Archie shouted, even though they were a few meters away from him and he bolted to the English department and towards Professor Mills's office.

He knocked on the door and as soon as the words "come in" was uttered he hurried in, gasping from having raced across campus.

"Fuck, I'm sorry I'm late." Archie huffed and wheezed, sagging against the wall with an outstretched arm as he endeavoured to catch his breath. Archie's glasses had steamed up from the fact that he was now sweating from sprinting.

There were a few minutes of stillness before he held himself up, rotating to see Professor Mills with an entertained smirk on her features.

"And what's your explanation for being delayed this time, Mr McCall?" The woman grilled him, cocking her eyebrow as she did so.

Archie drew the hardback book from his bag and revealed it to the woman, still not completely recovered from the sprint over. He took a couple of moments to assemble the words before he addressed her and his voice was now hoarse. "I had to go get the book." Archie shoved the book as gently as he could back into his bag, swung it around and set it next to the sofa again and travelled to the Professor's desk, assuming he was going to get admonished.

"What did I say about being late, Mr McCall?" Regina challenged him, her eyebrow still raised and the scalding glare back in place which she maintained for late students and those who hadn't done their assignments. She acknowledged that Archie had gone to get the James Patterson book and knew that he was required to read it, but it was no justification to be late for the times she had set out for him.

Archie frowned. "I-I… T-that every time I-I'm late I'll be your a-assistant for a d-day?" He toppled over the words a bit, the scalding glare he was given making him sputter his words.

Professor Mills found his stutter endearing, something that most men didn't have a problem with, and yet here he was, squirming under her glare with a stutter. Archie didn't put up a confident front, he seemed more relaxed and genuinely had manners. "So you'll be here tomorrow morning at 7 am, again."

"But th-this isn't class!" Archie asserted, he had shit to do. He needed to keep up with fine art, creative writing and English Literature. He couldn't do that if this woman demanded his every free moment outside of university and after a while if he continued to get little sleep then he would overexert himself.

Regina stood up calmly and placed both her hands on the desk, staring at the young man in front of her with bandaged knuckles. "I'm aware that this isn't class, Mr McCall. Regardless, what I said still stands." Regina declared. "Now, go back to the filing, Mr McCall." The woman's tone left no room for arguments, and she could tell that the young man was seething as he clenched his jaw.

Ideas of resisting to go to the assistant job ran through his mind and he prepared a plan in his head of what to do. For now, though, he would do as he was told. Archie scoffed at her and marched to the filing cabinet, pulling out the second drawer he began doing the last of the ordering in that drawer.

Archie promptly moved through the work that the Professor had set for him, quickly pulling his phone out he went to the audible app and turned to Professor Mills. "Professor Mills?"

There was typing for a few moments and then she looked up from her laptop where she had been working and raised an eyebrow to the stance he took, especially since he had his phone out. "Yes, Mr McCall?"

Holding his phone up to show her the screen, he shifted, hesitating before articulating himself. "Could I play an audiobook please?"

Regina considered his words for a moment. "Yes. Providing it doesn't distract you from your work." The woman agreed and Archie quickly put on the audiobook for Witch and Wizard and locked his phone as the man on the phone spoke.

" _Chapter seven. Wisty._

 _I heard scared-silly screams everywhere, even from the commandos, as I stood gaping at the orange-yellow tongues of flames shooting off me…"_

Archie listened to the man speak, moving through mechanical actions to order the files alphabetically.

The space that filled the room was calm for the most part, card scraping on card and every so often metals softly clattering together as files were placed in the right spots. The keyboard strokes that came from the woman behind the desk, the smell of books floating through the air and the lights became brighter at each passing moment when the earth continued its rotation and the world outside dimmed.

The only governing sound in the office was the noise from the phone on top of the filing cabinet, that of a man reading a book animatedly. Archie had gotten to the second filing cabinet before the woman cleared her throat and he stood up to attention, not recognising that he had been on autopilot the whole time.

Archie dragged his eyes away from the files in his hands and turned to attention from across the room to his Professor. He reached over to the top of the cabinet and paused the audiobook they had been listening to for a good portion of their time together.

"I hadn't noticed the time, it's 9:30, Mr McCall," Regina stated matter-of-factly. "I think we can call it a night."

Archie hesitated before nodding, shoving his phone into his pocket and went to the desk, leaning against the armrest that faced the desk. "This, uh sounds… weird… but," Archie faltered on his words before taking a breath and speaking with more confidence than he done before. "Do you want to get dinner?"


	9. Chapter 9

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 9

There was a tense silence in the office of Regina Mills, a young man and woman stared at each other for minutes on end as the woman thought about her response to his question. The woman quirked an amused smirk. "You haven't tired of my company yet?"

Archie returned her smirk, a small chuckle leaving his throat. "Well, I'm running on coffee and chocolate. So, I should probably eat something sustainable." Archie informed her, winking. His blue eyes swirling with excitement at the aspect of a… somewhat date. "Besides, you're forcing me to be your assistant, you must love my company."

Regina mulled over the idea of dinner with one of her most promising students before nodding. "Fine, but we're going to a place I like. That isn't Granny's Diner." Regina had stated, standing up and beginning to pack her stuff away.

Archie didn't know how they were getting there but, he was too excited to care. Putting away the files in his hands he picked up his bag and made sure he hadn't left anything and leant against the armrest of the sofa. The young man pulled his phone out closing the apps before messaging the dorm group chat seeing that there were a few new messages.

 _Wolfgirl: Archie what was our homework for Mills_

 _Wolfgirl: Archie_

 _Geordie: Archie my little cabbage?_

 _Wolfgirl: OI, TEACHERS PET!_

 _BookNerd: He's being Professor Mills's assistant, so I assume he can't have his phone_

 _Wolfgirl: He's such a teacher's pet._

 _Wolf girl has changed Archikin's nickname to TeachersPet_

 _BookNerd: He's being forced to be there_

 _Wolfgirl: Well fuck, what am I going to do_

 _TeachersPet: Hey boys and girls, I won't be home for another hour or so, going out for dinner._

 _BookNerd: With who? Are you cheating on me?_

 _TeachersPet: Who we discussed earlier Belle_

 _TeachersPet: Also Ruby, homework was to read a James Patterson book and do a one page summary of it._

 _BookNerd: Oh shit, that's a step up from a coffee_

 _TeachersPet: Right?_

 _TeachersPet: Right, back later kids! Side note, the fuck is this new nickname cunts?_

Archie locked his phone and saw Regina was now ready to go, shoving the phone in his pocket once more he smiled at her. "Sorry, I was telling Ruby what the homework was for the second time" Archie casually hurried to the door, opened it and held the door open for the older woman.

"Ah, so Miss Lucas still wants to pass then?" Professor Mills asked him sashaying through the doorway and waiting for the young man to walk through the door and allowing the door to shut behind him. Regina began locking up the room, keys still in hand as she led the way to the University's car park. "How are you with spicy food?" The woman asked as they walked through silent hallways, it would seem that everyone had left the university.

Archie turned to look at her, grinning. "I love me some spicy food," Archie told her and when they were out of the building there was about a ten-minute walk to get to the actual car park. "Would you mind if I have a cigarette?" Archie didn't normally have to ask the person he was with, he already knew that none of his friends really minded except for Scouser. The two compromised however and Archie would make sure to blow smoke away from her and into the wind providing it didn't slam into her face. But he didn't know Regina's stand on smoke other than 'it causes cancer' so, it was better to ask.

"Providing you blow it away from me, and finish by the time we get to my car, then feel free," Regina answered him, a small smile over her lips as the young man asked her if it was okay to smoke when with her. Regina was used to people just smoking when they walked with her and it was a nice change to see.

Archie pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his lips, quickly lighting it he took a long drag from the cancer stick and hummed as his nicotine addiction was sated.

The two walked close together, closer than you would with a friend but not quite as close as you would with someone you loved. Neither of them moved at their space and they were happy with the company they shared. Archie had finished his cigarette only seconds before they arrived at the woman's car and he looked at it.

When Regina noticed him not going to his side of the car, she looked over to him to see him looking over the car. "Like what you see Mr McCall?" The woman questioned him, a flirtatious smirk on her lips.

Archie's mouth went dry at her words before dumbly nodding. He liked everything he saw especially due to the fact that there was a very attractive, beautiful hot woman standing next to a beautifully crafted car. "Y-you could say that." Came his reply and he stuttered slightly on the words. He swiftly advanced his way to the passenger side and the doors were unlocked. Allowing them both to settle into the black leather interior of the car. "Professor Mills, if you ever wanted me to do anything for you. Just give me a ride in this car."

Regina laughed, actually laughed. Not the deep chuckle that came from her throat. No, this was a melody that not many heard and Archie turned to look at her, his eyes dilated slightly at the sound and if he hadn't had a crush before, he definitely did now.

"I'll keep that in mind, Mr McCall," Regina assured him, buckling up and starting up the car. She made sure the young man next to her had also buckled up and they were on their way to a place that Archie had no idea about. "Oh, and Mr McCall, call me Regina when we're alone," Regina suggested, well more like ordered him but she noticed the smile the spread over his features.

With Archie's grin spreading over his face without his notice he nodded at her. "Only if you call me Archie or Archer." He waved his hand signalling that he didn't mind what name he was called unless it wasn't 'Mr McCall'.

"I can do that, Archibald." Regina's lips quirked at the sound of Archie making a huffing noise at what she had decided to call him. The restaurant was five minutes from campus and they quickly pulled up to it. A Mexican restaurant. "Well, let's go." The duo exited the car and when he was about to take his bag with him he stopped at the pointed look Regina gave him, taking the bag off his shoulder he deposited it back into the car, grabbing his wallet from the front pocket and put it into his jean pocket.

Due to both how late it was and early into the night the couple was seated quickly. Archie took his tan jacket off and hung it over his chair before taking a seat.

Regina had a hard time focusing on what to order seeing at how relaxed Archie had become, although he seemed extroverted it was abundantly clear that on neutral standing he was introverted. After discussing that neither wanted an appetizer, they went to work on finding what they wanted. She hadn't noticed the man's eyes before, and just how blue they were. Yet there were specks of gold and green every so often in an ocean of endless blue. She was brought out of her musings when Archie spoke, but not to her to the waiter standing over them with a welcoming smile.

"Hiya, could I get a Whiskyrita and Fish Tacos del Mar please?" Archie asked the man, a small smile over his features as he spoke. Archie was a man who loved experiencing new things and although he loved Mexican he usually stuck with burritos. It was a nice change of pace for him.

The waiter and her dining partner looked at her for what she wanted and she closed the menu in front of her having decided on what she would have. She smiled at the man who was waiting on them and he sent her a look that said 'you have a date today?' Regina didn't respond except for the slight nod of the head which Archie thankfully hadn't seen. He had been looking at all the homemade art pieces that decorated the restaurant with enthusiasm that only an artist could hold. "I'll take the Enchiladas Muchachas and a Mexican Mojito please, not too much alcohol though, I'm driving. Thank you"

There was a distinct difference in how the two ordered. Regina knew what she wanted and didn't ask for her food as Archie did. The waiter quickly wrote down the order, took their menus and disappeared to make the drinks and put the order in.

Archie turned to look at Regina after she had ordered, although still rather enthralled by the artwork around them.

"Careful dear, your art student is showing," Regina observed and Archie's cheeks lit up some with dustings of pink. "I heard you order whisky, you don't strike me as the kind of person to drink it." Regina assessed him, leaning forward in her chair as they spoke to each other.

"What kind of alcohol drinker do I strike you as?" Archie's mouth tilted upward, a sly grin growing. "The kind that goes to the pub every night and orders a pint?"

"That and the kind of person who drinks cheap beer in the park." Regina teased him, returning his banter. A small chuckle escaping.

"Oh no thank you, I did that in my teenage years, I don't need to relive cold December nights in England drinking beer that tastes like an ashtray." Archie laughed with her, and he leant forward as well, interested in the conversation.

"Ah yes, they have a low drinking age over there, don't they? I have a sneaking suspicion that you took full advantage." Regina deducted and leant back just slightly when the waiter came over with their drinks, leaning back to the table and entwining her fingers together to allow her chin to rest on her fingers.

It took everything Archie had to not 'appreciate' the way the lighting fell over the woman and just elevate how elegant and classy she looked sitting in front of him. And with the scar on her top lip, his mind raced with thoughts. Not only did she have the poise of a lady, but the scar also made her look like a badass.

"Oh, I most certainly did," Archie told her, quite proudly in fact. "In fact, at the karaoke bars, I was hailed their hero."

"And why is that?" Regina cocked her eyebrow, interested in the young man.

"So, when I'm drunk, I am very friendly." Archie blurted. "Not in a way of 'making friends' as in the way of, creating a group of forty people by walking from one bar to the next." He quickly tried to soothe her, not realising what had come out of his mouth until after he said it

Regina seemed impressed, she hadn't known anyone to be that outgoing when drunk, yet Archie seemed to have an air of comfort about him. It was comfortable and inviting, double it with alcohol, Archie was bound to be a party starter.

Regina shook her head, a chuckle erupting from her throat and she smiled at the young man. "I dread to think what you'll do to the dorms."

Archie gave her a twisted smirk. "Nowhere is safe from me." His smile became more genuine as he heard her laugh at what he had said and he watched her features light up from the laughter.

"Other than your insistence to ruin dorms with your partying," Regina began, watching as he took a sip of his Whiskyrita. "Tell me some more about yourself, your family, whatever you want to share." Regina leant back slightly and the duo looked each other in the eye before Archie hummed in thought.

Archie went into great detail telling her about his family, how his parents had divorced when he was 13 years old, that he had three older siblings the oldest being 15 years older than him and the youngest being 8 years older than him. That his family was working class and that his mother had instilled her strong work ethic into him - when he wanted to do so. Archie also told her about his teenage years where he had spent most of his exams drunk or hungover due to bad choices on his end. That he had his first party at the age of fourteen and was known as the house party legend at school for his 'shit face Fridays' every week, and had started smoking around the age of twelve. Archie then proceeded to tell her how he had been the scapegoat of all of his siblings when it came to anything whilst his youngest sister was the golden child which had led to him having a not so great childhood. The young man told her how he had been in a toxic abusive relationship for two years until a year before he came to America. He also told her how he had worked constantly to pay for college after he had aged out of the education system to make sure he could go to university and he came to America on a whim more than anything else but he was happy with his decision.

Regina listened to him speak with such passion and ease, interested in everything he had to say and tell her. When the food came they ate and Regina let spill some of her own past, how she had been in a relationship with a man that had ended in his tragic death, she told him how her father had died not too long ago. Regina spoke about her older half-sister who lived in England for years and still did, and that they still skype called almost every day and how her mother had been invested in everything Regina would do and would make lunch plans every weekend. She told him how she loved her job with everything she had and was in the progress of writing her third book. Archie had leant over and gave her hand a small squeeze and apologised for her loss and she thanked him for doing so but had said it was almost a lifetime ago.

When Archie finally checked his phone he found that was nearing 11 pm and he showed her the time.

"I hadn't realised it was so late, we best get going," Regina observed and called the waiter over, pulling out her card.

"Wait, I invited you out for dinner, I should pay." Archie tried, taking his wallet out but as he went to get the cash out the waiter had already put Regina's card through the machine and he looked at her with his best scalding glare, which was nothing compared to Regina's.

"Yes, but you've been a big help today, my treat," Regina reassured him, a triumphant smirk plastered proudly on her face.

Archie huffed and rolled his eyes, finishing off his drink. "Well then, I owe you dinner."

Regina smiled and the duo stood up and walked to Regina's car, waving to the waiter and owner thanking them for the meal. Archie still drooled over the car. "I actually love this car." Archie declared.

Regina laughed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night and they made their way back to Astor house, they sat in Regina's car for a while when they pulled up and neither of them knew how to end the night. They looked at each other, smiling and enjoying the moment that neither wanted to end.

Then there was a loud honking sound from behind them and Archie swore under his breath, picking his back up and smiling brightly at her. "Thank you for tonight, I'll see you in about eight hours!" Archie stumbled slightly over the words and hopped out the car and watched as the car drove away. Archie's face was flushed and he threw up his middle finger at the car that had honked at them. Fucking ford.

Pulling his phone out he sent out a text.

 _TeachersPet: BELLE._

 _BookNerd: Yes?_

 _TeachersPet: MY ROOM. NOW. BRING CHOCOLATE._


	10. Chapter 10

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 10

When Archie got into his room he left the door open and propped it open with one of his boots that had been near the door. He threw himself face first onto his bed and let out a deep loud groan. Archie heard the light footsteps of a jog come down the hall and then stop outside his room.

"Archie?" An Aussie accent came through and with a few more footsteps and the click of his door told him that Belle had arrived and shut his door. "So, what happened? Did you guys kiss? Gimmie the deets!" The Aussie asked him, excitement riddled in her voice as she questioned him for details.

Archie rolled over onto his back and sat up seeing that Belle was holding a few packs of m&ms, the blue kind - his favourite kind as well mind you. He patted the space in front of him and the duo began eating the m&ms together as Archie recounted the whole night that he and Regina had shared. Except for Regina's past, not wanting to tell Belle what had happened because it wasn't his place to tell her.

"And we had a moment in the car, and I could have sworn we were going to kiss and then this fucker honked at us and we had to end things!" Archie swore, throwing his hands up in the air in annoyance.

Belle laughed. "I've never seen you this wound up before!"

"The chance to make out with the hottest professor at the university and you're surprised I'm wound up?" Archie scoffed and stuffed a few m&ms in his mouth.

Belle gave him a pointed look. "With how you eat I'm surprised she even gave you a lift home."

Archie blew a raspberry at the woman and flipped her off before throwing himself backwards. "I have to get up in like 6 hours, and I still need to finish my book and write a summary and fuuuuuuuck." Archie huffed, rubbing his eyes in frustration. "I might withdraw from English Lit."

"Are you serious?" Belle asked him, taking his arm and pulling him to sit up in front of her - she was met with resistance and more groaning.

"I can't keep up with it all the work and I'm bound to be late to Mills's class again and with two majors and a minor I can't do it." Archie huffed, he hadn't even gone to his last English Lit class and it already wasn't going well.

"Well, if you can't do it then you'll need to talk to Professor Nolan," Belle told him, passing over the bag of crispy m&ms with a sincere smile. "Don't stress too much, you just had a dinner date!"

"My masculinity is fragile, she paid for dinner," Archie told her, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Slowly, Archie stood from his bed and let out a yawn. "I need coffee, so I can start this bullshit."

Belle nodded, gently shoving his shoulder playfully. "You do that, I'm off to bed."

"Lucky bitch." Archie jokingly seethed and smiled. "Have fuuuuuun." He grabbed his dressing gown and pulled it over himself, as they both made their way out of the room. He sent Belle off with a hug and went to the kitchen, making himself a coffee with two sugars.

When he came back he opened audible on his phone and placed it on charge as he listened to the final few chapters of the book. Pulling up a word document he set to work on writing the one-page summary. By the time he had finished researching, writing, editing and refining the summary it was 3:49 am and he groaned loudly.

Pulling out the book from his bag, he placed it on his bookcase which was now full of books with a few placed haphazardly on top of other books. He made a note to buy another bookcase if he stayed in America.

Archie stood up and stretched himself out, feeling pops in his back. The young man made his way to the kitchen to make another coffee. Moving through the living room he realised that it was still a mess from the party a couple of days ago and there were dishes piling up in the sink. He poured himself a cup of coffee and pulled out a cigarette from the pack that resided in his pocket. After placing the cancer stick between his lips he lit it, taking a long drag from the cigarette he looked around at the mess.

Grabbing a black bin bag he went around the room, picking up ashtrays and emptying them, throwing cans and bottles in the pin along with any other kind of rubbish that littered the coffee table, sofa and overall living room. Placing it in the kitchen he grabbed the hoover and set to work with hoovering everything up to make it a cleaner place to be in. He opened windows to allow the smell of smoke and booze to disappear and sprayed air freshener around the room.

He moved onto the kitchen, washing things up and cleaning the sides down along with the cooker itself. He wiped his forehead with his arm and looked around, the place looked good again and he could see himself coming out of his room again. Archie grabbed the rubbish bag, left the front door on the latch and carried it to the bin out the front.

When everything was finished and he was sat on the kitchen counter drinking his now stone cold coffee it was 5:04 am. He hummed, feeling better if not a little tired. A lot tired actually. Gulping down the stone cold coffee he placed it in the sink, washing it up and putting it on the rack to dry.

Archie went back to his room, grabbed his shower stuff and went upstairs to shower and smell nice again. When he came back armed with his dirty clothes and shower stuff he dumped the clothes in the hamper and planned to do his washing tomorrow on his day off. And put his shower things away.

Archie pulled on new boxers, a pair of black skinny jeans and black leather boots, black shirt with white dots on it along with a cream coloured jumper. He pulled on his trusty leather jacket.

Grabbing his bag, he dumped out the art clothes he had stored in there and threw them into his hamper, placed his MacBook and charger in it, his phone charger and his creative writing book. Before swearing, taking his MacBook back out and printing his summary, placing it in his laptop and shoved it back into his bag. Archie also dumped the pack of m&ms in his bag.

He made sure he grabbed his keys, wallet, phone and cigarettes including his lighter and walked out of the room, flicking his light off and locking up the room before leaving for the Starbucks on campus. It took him thirty minutes to walk there, cigarette in the mouth as he strolled his way casually through shortcuts to get to the cafe.

As Archie waited in line at the coffee shop he checked the time. 6:30 am. He ordered a black Americano, a pumpkin spiced latte with two extra shots of espresso. And then two double espressos. When they arrived he asked for a cup of ice and placed two ice cubes in both the double espressos and proceeded to down them like they were shots of tequila. Archie made his way over to Regina's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A sultry deep voice told him.

Archie quickly opened the door to see his Professor and Professor Hood. Archie flashed her his winning smile.

"Good morning Professor Mills, Professor Hood." Archie held up the to go cups and set the Americano on her desk. "I brought coffee with me, shall I continue the filing from yesterday?"

"That would be great, thank you. And for the coffee as well Mr McCall." Regina smiled at him as he set his bag down and began work on the filing once more. "As you can see Mr Hood, I'm looking after my student again."

"And what's the reason this time, Regina?" The man asked, looking over at the young brit that went about picking up files and organising them.

"Mr McCall was late. He's making up for lost time." Regina spoke, she had a harder tone this time, her eyes blazing with slight anger. "Mr Hood, I have a lesson to plan for so if you would be so kind," Regina gestured to the door.

The man nodded, and he left, leaving the door open again. Archie strolled to the door and shut it after the man and went towards Regina, leaning against the armrest of the couch in front of the desk.

"Archibald, you're looking a little worse for where," Regina stated, seeing the grey under his eyes. She took a sip of her coffee and watched as he reached over and grabbed his own coffee.

"Haven't slept yet. Stayed up finishing the book and doing the summary." Archie informed her, taking a sip of his coffee and then rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Then I had two hours left until I had to get up so I cleaned the living room and kitchen."

Regina stared at him. "Make sure you're on time today so you can spend tomorrow catching up on sleep."

"I'll be fine," Archie assured her, half-heartedly though mind you. "I've worked two jobs before whilst at college, sleep is for the weak."

Regina shook her head with a smile. "Archibald, that isn't healthy."

Archie smirked. "Why Regina, are you worried about me?" The young man teased her, raises his brow just slightly, unable to do so.

"I'm more worried about your grade." Regina scoffed, teasing him back.

Archie laughed and waved his hand. "You're worried about meeee," He sung as he stood up and swallowed down a gulp of coffee, and let out a sigh. "Right, I'm going to do filing."

Regina nodded, giving him a soft smile and typed away at her laptop. The air was calm once more and the sliding of a card on card filled the air as Archie went about organising. There was soft chattering outside the door that passed every so often.

"What will you give me when I finish this?" Archie asked suddenly, looking over to Regina who had been startled out of her work.

"Do you plan on being late more often?" Regina asked, raising a brow with a smirk.

Archie gave her a shrug, looking over the files in his hands. "I mean I owe you dinner, so I might as well."

Regina gave him a pointed look. "You're not allowed to be late anymore Mr McCall."

"Or what?" Archie smirked, stopping what he was doing and looking up to look at the Professor.

Regina stood up and crossed the floor to stand in front of the young man, taking hold of his leather jacket. "Three lates means an absence. Do you want three absences to take 10% off your grade?"

"Maybe I'll ask for extra credit," Archie suggested, moving closer to the woman.

Regina raised a brow and touched his lips with her index finger, her olive skin was a stark contrast to his light sandy skin. "What makes you so sure that you'll be offered extra credit?"

Archie smirked and it took him everything he had not to kiss her index finger. "I'm-" The finger was pushed into his lips and the pointed look was back.

"Hush." It was an order. Regina looked at him, searching his eyes before she pulled him closer to her by his leather jacket. "Nod or shake your head. Do you want this?"

Archie quickly nodded his head before he even recognised what the question was. There was a moment of hesitation before Regina leant in, there was a battle of there tongues, Archie was pinned against the filing cabinets as Regina wrapped her arms around his neck as their tongues danced and thought for dominance before Archie allowed her to take control.

They finally came up for air and they looked at each other, there were no words needed and finally, when the moment passed, Professor Regina Mills gave him a smirk. "Get to class."


	11. Chapter 11

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 11

Archie strolled through the hallways, making sure to go to the toilet to make sure Regina's red lipstick hadn't smudged on his face. He rubbed it off and went to class, there were twenty minutes left before class started. As he walked outside, putting a cigarette to his lips and lighting it, he pulled his phone out.

 _TeachersPet: Ruby you in class today?_

 _Wolfgirl: Yeah two seconds away from Starbucks_

 _TeachersPet: Grab me a PSL with two extra shots, please?_

 _Wolfgirl: got it, babe!_

 _TeachersPet: Thanks babe x_

Archie took a long drag from his cigarette and stared out at the grey sky and exhaled as the smoke danced in the wind. Staring out at the sky he heard the breeze whistling around, the murmurings of people who walk by and the swirling of rustling leaves. Once he finished his cigarette and threw the bud away and walked to the class, checking the time as he did so. Twelve minutes left of waiting.

He opened the door to the lecture hall, catching the eye of Ruby.

"Alright teacher's pet, you look like shit." Ruby all but shouted, catching the attention of their professor and a few other students.

"Cheers for that melt." Archie laughed and walked over to Ruby, sitting down next to her in the middle row. It was different to where he normally sat at the front. He grabbed the to-go cup from Ruby and took a sip from the cup.

"I noticed you cleaned the living room," Ruby told him, pulling out her laptop from her bag.

Archie rolled his eyes and grabbed his MacBook and started it up, pulling up a new word document. Taking a gulp of his coffee and typed up the title of 'lesson three' before leaning back in his chair and looking at the board. "That's because you lot do fuck all in cleaning."

Ruby put her hand on her chest and faked a wounded expression. "Fuck off, I don't even eat at home."

Archie rolled his eyes. "That's a fucking lie."

"Mr McCall, Miss Lucas, language!" Professor Mills asserted, giving the duo a pointed look. Almost bordering on the scalding glare.

"Sorry Professor Mills." The two grumbled and sat dejectedly.

Soon the class filled up with people and Archie picked up his MacBook and propped his feet up on his table and placed his laptop on his legs. He ignored Ruby's snort and refused to look up at the more than likely scalding glare that was aimed at him.

The lesson started and Professor Mills went around the class, talking about the importance to capture the audience within a few lines. She gave the prompt of 'The future.' and told the class to write a short story, poem, screenplay - anything.

The class was silent except for the keyboard strokes and pencils scribbling on paper notebooks. There was tapping on the table from the pencils. There was a tense atmosphere that hung in the air, and the stress leaked out onto more students.

Professor Mills cleared her throat after half an hour and everyone looked up at her. "Let's share, I'll pick a few people to read out part of what they have."

Everyone seemed to shrink behind their desks, it was still the first week of university and no one wanted to be judged that early in the year by their peers. No one held their hands up to be picked but that wouldn't matter to Regina, if she wanted to read, then you would read.

"Mr McCall." Regina suddenly spoke, a twisted smirk on her lips as she looked at the young Brit who still had his legs on his table.

"Hello, Professor Mills," Archie replied, smirking back at her. It wouldn't be easy to get him to read and she would know that.

Regina shook her head. "What have you written?"

"I wrote a poem, I thought I'd push myself," Archie told her, positioning himself to sit a bit more upright in his seat as he shuffled his laptop on his lap.

There was silence and Regina gave him a pointed look. "Read it out, Mr McCall."

"I'm shy." Archie deadpanned with no emotion behind his voice, tilting the screen back slightly to be able to read it clearly.

Regina placed her hands on her hips, her mouth in a straight line as she waited. There were a few snickers from around the room.

"This is called **A stream of words spat into a logical order in a tale of the Great Time War.** " Archie began, speaking clearly and without a stutter as his eyes worked along the lines.

" _They gave us two days warning,_

 _The men in useless grey boxes._

 _Kieran and I had planned ahead, we had masks._

 _Enough food to last five days._

 _By then, mother was clearly infected._

 _Mother is gone,_

 _Her birthing day was two days ago, that was gone like a whirlpool of ashes._

 _No more birthday candles on a made-with-love cake._

 _A mask fiercely strapped to my face,_

 _Get to Kieran. Don't stop._

 _Seconds ticked by, minutes poured into hours,_

 _We needed not the concept anymore; we're to be dead within a week._

 _3:21 am, 25_ _th_ _July 2019._

 _Bloodied bodies against flaking cement walls._

 _Get to Kieran. Don't stop._

 _It wasn't like on big screens; you can't isolate yourself._

 _You couldn't hide from these monsters; once they were inside you_

 _You were dead._

 _Insanity. The first symptom._

 _Disembodied men, screeching; blood-curdling_

 _Enough to kill anyone. Turn them insane._

 _Failure of organs… heart attacks, the breaking of your system._

 _All systems down; dying._

 _Bones feeling like shattering glass like the hollow cars on concrete pools._

 _Mother had heart disease; it was worse for her._

 _I left her._

 _Bound tightly against a chair, fearing that she'd rip my mind._

 _I left her; reluctantly._

 _But I had gone._

 _Get to Kieran._

 _Don't. Stop_."

Archie looked up as silence filled the air, eyes staring at him as he spoke with a confidence no one had seen him with before. Ruby's mouth was slightly agape.

"Fucking hell Archie," Ruby stated and there were a few chuckles that sounded around the lecture hall. "You need to calm down."

"I will never be calmed," Archie told her, a grin on his face.

"Miss Lucas, language," Regina started with a pointed look in her direction. She nodded to Archie, a small smile on her face and Archie felt himself swell with pride. "Very nice Mr McCall. Captivating and good work on using the prompt. Miss Taylor, you're next."

The rest of the lesson was spent with Professor Mills once again stressing the importance of when writing stories to captivate the reader and to make sure there was a plot when writing a story. After telling everyone to write the notes that were shown on the board she walked around the room collecting the assignments from each student.

When her scent of vanilla and musky wood infiltrated his senses and he looked up at the woman who held her hand out. "Feet off my desk please Mr McCall." The woman's voice was deep and husky, the stern tone she took with him wasn't to be messed with.

Archie reached into his bag without taking his eyes off the woman and pulled the summary out from his bag and handed it to her.

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Feet off the desk." The tone was firmer this time, she didn't take the summary from him.

Archie sighed and moved, taking his feet off the desk and putting his MacBook on the desk with one hand as he held out the summary to the professor with the other.

Regina took the summary from the young man and looked over it as she stood in front of the Brit. "This is looking promising, Mr McCall."

"Thank you, Professor Mills." The young man murmured to her and picked up his forgotten coffee, swirled it around and took a gulp of the now stone cold coffee. When The woman moved to the next person, Ruby who gave her a page of a large font.

Regina shot her a seething look, uttered no words and went to the next student. As she did so Archie positioned himself to have his legs on the desk once more with the laptop on his lap as he finished typing up the rest of his notes.

There were soft murmurs when everyone had finished the notes and then finally Regina spoke. "Good work today everyone, for your weekend assignment I want you to edit and refine your first assignment. Any questions? No? Good. You're dismissed."

People began packing away and Archie yawned, slowly moving to put his laptop in its bag and get up from the desk.

"Geordie's giving me a lift home, coming?" Ruby asked him, shoving her notebook haphazardly into her bag.

"Sorry Rubes, I've got English Lit but I need to find professor Nolan to withdraw and then assistant duties," Archie explained, rubbing his eyes but this time rather than in frustration it was in a way to stay awake.

"You're dropping English Lit?" Ruby asked him, hopping on the desk behind her.

"No, I thought I'd make something up and tell you a lie." The young man deadpanned. "Yes, I'm dropping lit."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "You're cranky when you're sleep deprived."

"I'll become murderous if you throw a party tonight," Archie told her, throwing his bag over his shoulder and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh come on, you know as much as I do that you need to get wasted and fuck some drunk chick."

"Ruby, I am going home after my job as an assistant, and I am going to sleep. I don't need to fuck a drunk chick, I am perfectly fine with how I am.

"You need to loosen up."

"No, I needed to make a good impression. Now, fuck off. I need to find Professor Nolan." Archie waved her away and rolled his eyes as he picked his phone up from the desk

"Is there a reason you were having a gossip session in my lecture hall, Archibald?"

Archie jumped at the deep voice that came from the olive-skinned goddess in front of him. " _Fuck!_ " Archie held his hand on his chest and took a deep breath in order to not have a full on panic attack from the scare."Sweet baby Jesus, Regina you need to stop scaring me. Sorry, disoriented."

Regina let out a laugh, a beautiful melody of richness that only the most indulgent chocolate could hold. "So you're dropping English Literature?" With a raised brow, Regina interrogated him, as she leant on her desk.

Archie shrugged, closing his eyes. "Yeah, I can't deal with a double Major and minor." Copying her movements to lean against the desk. He looked down at the empty to-go cup that was held in an awkward position as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I just want to have a nap."

"Almost home time, we're leaving the office early tonight," Regina informed him, a smile over her lips. "I'm meeting Professor Nolan for coffee in ten minutes, she should be in Starbucks."

"Arr, you're a star. Thank you. For both pieces of information." Archie beamed at her. "Also gives me an excuse to down two double espressos."

"Try not to drink too much coffee," Regina suggested and picked up her laptop. As she did so she saw Archie come to her desk, she looked up to see him picking up the stack of papers that had been on the desk. "Thank you." The words were uttered softly and she saw him smile at her.

"What kind of assistant would I be if I didn't help you?" Archie told her, a playful smirk etched over his face as he followed her out.

Regina had a powerful strut, she walked through hallways and the students parted like the red sea, the look that dared people to defy her was prominent on her features. Her mouth set in a thin line as she made her way through the red sea of students.

When they finally arrived at the Professor's office and when she unlocked it, Archie waited for her to walk in before he entered. He made his way to the desk and placed the stack of papers neatly on the desk.

"So I heard from your gossip session you're having a party," Regina stated, setting her own laptop on her desk.

"More like they're having a party and I'm going to have a shot of tequila in my room to knock myself out," Archie confessed. "Don't get me wrong, I love to party, but I'm exhausted and I don't plan on joining them"

"Do you have a habit of 'fucking drunk chicks' Mr McCall?" Regina asked and there was something that Archie couldn't place in her eyes. Was the woman jealous? Whatever professional relationship they had was no more after the moment they shared after dinner and what had happened only hours before. At least outside of the lecture hall, where they had creative writing classes.

Archie scoffed. "I'd like to think you had more faith in me to not be so crass," Archie told her and looked around before chucking his empty to-go cup into a nearby bin. "No, I don't. As much as I loathe to admit it, I haven't had sex in two years."

After his messy break up with his ex where he had ended up in the hospital that made his long-term friends, Scouser and Kieran visit him - Scouser had lived in Liverpool so the four-hour train journey to see him was something he would cherish for a long time - Archie hadn't had sex. He didn't like the idea and hadn't been ready to give himself so freely to someone else for a long time.

Whatever the Professor was expecting, it wasn't that, having heard that Archie had been out of the toxic and abusive relationship two years ago she came to her own conclusion that whatever happened was the reason behind why he hadn't had sex with someone in two years.

They looked at each other with a mutual look, one that said they understood each other. Regina nodded to the young man, it was agreed upon that they wouldn't speak about it until Archie was ready.

Regina picked up her blazer from her swivel chair, throwing it on she began walking to the door. "Come along dear, I have a friend to see and you have an addiction to feed," Regina smirked, strutting her way to the door and holding it open for the young man who walked out without much of a fuss or hesitation.


	12. Chapter 12

I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.

 _ **Please review!**_

Chapter 12

Whilst Regina went to see her friend the young sleep-deprived man went to the counter to grab his much-needed fix. Double shot of espresso and a PSL with two extra shots. Archie wandered over to a table with a couch and all but threw himself down on the leather. Pulling out his phone he unlocked it and went onto the group chat.

 _TeachersPet: Who's still around?_

 _Geordie: I'm about to leave for the day with Ruby_

 _TeachersPet: Reckon Mills would kill me if I skipped tonight?_

 _Geordie: There are two things in life that are certain, death and Mills verbally murdering tardy people._

 _Bookworm: That I agree with._

 _TeachersPet: I want to sleeeep_

 _Bookworm: Shame, I'm still at uni, where are you?_

 _Wolfgirl: Geordie's giving me a lift to work_

 _TeachersPet: Starbucks, obvs._

 _TeachersPet: Oi Rubes bring me home one of granny's burgers, I fucking love them_

 _Scouser: By the time Mills is done torturing you it'll be cold_

 _TeachersPet: Did I fucking stutter?_

 _Scouser: You're disgusting._

 _Wolfgirl: I'll bring you home one tomorrow so you can have it warm._

 _Bookworm: TeachersPet I'm on my way! Just stopped off at the library_

 _TeachersPet: Not even surprised mate_

Archie sighed, locking his phone, taking no notice of the dings his phone received from the group chat. He'd have to remember to turn that on mute if he wanted to have a good night's sleep. The young man took a sip of his PSL as he waited for Belle.

Archie pulled out his MacBook from his bag and began to make a copy of his first assignment and began to edit and refine it with the skills he had learnt the lesson before. No use sitting idly when he could drop at any moment. He had gotten a third of the way through his assignment and his coffee was almost depleted.

A hand clapped his shoulder and the man jumped. "Fuck!" The curse was uttered louder than he wanted, seeing as there were now people looking at him. Archie looked up and saw Belle. "You need to stop Aussie." Letting out a breath he worked on getting his heart rate back to normal.

"Good morning!" Belle chirped, after she had been done laughing at his reaction, taking a seat opposite him and crossed one leg over the other. She was wearing a navy blue dress with white petals, or Archie assumed they were petals, he was past the point of caring.

Archie grumbled. "Feels like afternoon." Archie leant back in his chair and looked over to his coffee, almost gone. He let out a pitiful whine and leant back in his chair. "I think I might buy coffee beans."

Belle was giggling at Archie's grumbling, and shook her head. "Considering you're dropping lit, why don't you skip it? Go home and sleep until 3 and then come back to be a good little assistant?"

The stubbled man looked at her with a look of fake shock as he held his hand over his chest. "Belle! Are you encouraging me to skip a lesson? Uni has changed you, not even a full week in."

Belle rolled her eyes at him before standing up. "PSL with extra two shots?"

Archie nodded animatedly. "Thank you my little kangaroo!"

When lunch was finished and Archie and Belle had a nice little gossip session and Archie found out that Belle now worked at the library. He greeted this knowledge by singing a song from his childhood, namely 'sing me a story' from story time with Belle. Belle had told him to shut up, quite rude.

When they departed with a hug and Belle telling him that she'll make dinner for the duo if he makes it tomorrow, he agreed and told her that he'd text when he was finished.

Archie had gone to Professor Nolan's classroom about twenty minutes before class, peeking into the window of the door found her alone. Archie hummed knocked on the door and walked in when addressed.

"Ah, Archie. Decided to turn up for this lesson then?" Professor Nolan asked him, checking the the time on her laptop.

Archie frowned and jogged down to her desk and leant against the one opposite her. "Uh actually-"

"You want to withdraw because you bit off more than you could chew?" The blonde professor asked him. She had grey eyes and was easygoing. Nolan wasn't being mean spirited in the slightest, she was just having a little fun with the obvious sleep deprived young man.

Archie made a pitiful small whining noise. "Yeees, and I thought I'd be able to do it but shit, uni is hard man." Archie threw his arms up in frustration. "And on top of that I'm meant to get a job for next year because the bursary isn't as much as first year for second and third."

Professor Nolan shook her head as the boy complained. "Well, I'll let you withdraw, but I know some teachers pay some students to be teaching aids if they do well in their first year." Nolan looked pointedly at him and he wondered if she knew of his punishment of being an assistant. "So try getting a shitty low hour job, like weekend work, and you can always pick up shifts from where your lessons with me used to be."

Archie let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Professor Nolan"

"It's no problem, besides it will get Regina off my back now that her 'most promising student who is chronically tardy' has more time to work on his assignments." Professor Nolan had imitated Regina quite well actually. "Right off with you, and don't tell her I said that!"

"Buy me a coffee and my lips are sealed!" Archie grinned at her, and hopped up from leaning. "Thanks Professor!" He bounced slightly up the stairs to the door and waved before wandering off to the quad and setting an alarm for 3:15pm and getting comfortable as his glasses darkened from the sun to protect his eyes, he laid down using his bag as a pillow and making the alarm was on loud he closed his eyes.

It was just a light sleep, he woke up whenever someone got near him. He was currently looking up at Scouser again, just as his alarm went off, he pulled himself up and turned it off and set another alarm for 3:40.

"Have you been sleeping in a field surrounded by people?" Kate demanded, her scouse accent still present.

Archie nodded. "Yeah." He waved her off and stretched out pulling his pack of cigarettes out and putting one in between his lips and lit it up.

Kate shook her head and sat down beside him, but away from the smoke. "I don't understand how you can sleep so easily."

Archie let out a whine. "I didn't sleep last night, I had my assignment to do and editing and refining and then it was too late to sleep and be on time so I tidied the living room."

"Awww babe, I knew it was your ocd arse who did it, Kieran didn't believe me." Scouser told him and pulled her phone out and texted someone. "You even got a taste of my insomnia!"

"Who you texting?" Archie inquired, wiggling his brows.

"RIGHT. So, the squad's really upset I went to America for uni but then? Fucking Megan, decided to apply for a full year in an American uni!" Kate animatedly told him. "And she was asking what uni I went to a obviously I told her because I can't be a shit friend, but like? I was here first?"

Archie shook his head. "I mean chances are she won't be in our school and even if she was, you won't run into her?"

Kate let out an exaggerated sigh. "I'd have to go see her? Like I can't just not leave one of my oldest friends on her own!"

Archie scoffed at her. "But you'll happily wander off with a gay man when we're both drunk and leave me, whilst I'm panicking trying to find you?"

"I needed to get some money out!" Kate raised her voice as if the two had had the same conversation too many times, which they had. "Let it go!"

"I thought you were kidnapped!" Archie pointed out, stubbing the cigarette on the floor after he had finished.

Kate rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up in outrage. "Why the fuck would a gay man - who I was skipping with might I add - try to kidnap me?"

Archie shrugged, grinning at the reaction he had gotten. "Fucking deserted me!"

They were cut off by his 3:40 alarm, and he let out a loud noise that was crossed between a groan and a scream.

"Shut the fuck up." Kate interrupted his noise, not looking up from her phone.

Archie huffed at her, his cheeks puffing out. "Rude."

Kate still didn't look up from her phone. "Go annoy someone who gives a fuck."

Archie huffed again but slowly threw his bag over his shoulder, getting up and stretching. "Have fun at home while I work to provide for this family."

Kate finally looked up. "What have I told you, no matter what corner you stand on no one will pay you."

Archie held a hand on his chest in mock offence. "My slut drop is unrivalled."

Kate stared at him, her face in a neutral expression. She was unwavering in her stare. "Go."

Archie huffed and bounced his way over to the English department and then to Professor Mill's office. He knocked three times.

He heard the come in from the other side of the door and strolled in, placing his bag next to the leather sofa and looked up at Regina who was currently tapping away on the laptop in front of her. He sat on the sofa.

"Do you not plan on working today?" A silky voice interrupted the peace.

The young man turned to look at the voice, his grey-blue eyes catching her own honey eyes. "I'm dying." He deadpanned.

Regina stood up, strutting her long legs and sat down on the opposite sofa. "I highly doubt that Mr McCall."

Archie rolled his head over to look at her with a pout on his face and before he could respond, Regina held up a finger to stop him.

"I'm wondering, Mr McCall," Regina started, brushing her hand over her dress of imaginary lint as she spoke. "As to why on earth you tested my patience in the morning lesson."

Archie felt himself freeze slightly and he offered her a small cheeky smile. "Uh, I don't know Professor Mills."

Regina didn't like that answer and she stood up, turning on her heel away from him and looking over the wall of books in front of her. "You'll write me a letter of apology addressing your behaviour." The strict woman stated, she wasn't asking, no. Professor Mills didn't ask, she informed and expected her students comply if they wanted a degree.

Archie fought back a large sigh and mentally added it to his list to do. "Yes Professor Mills." The young man agreed to do what she asked, not wanting anymore trouble than he was already greeted with. Archie looked at the woman's back to him and felt himself get lost in the golden of her skin.

"Good." Was the reply that came and she took a step forward to her wall of books, trailing her perfectly manicured fingers over one of the spines. "After you finished your filing you can organise the books, alphabetically by the authors surname. If it's a series, first to last." Regina informed him, pulling out the book that she had trailed her fingers against and pulled it out and strutted back to her desk. She looked up to see him still sitting on the couch. "You may start."

Archie groaned and dragged himself up. "Yes Professor Mills." Archie wandered himself over to the filing cabinets and wondered how slowly he could go with filing without being called out for it.

There was silence for a long time on both ends, before Regina stood up. "Archibald, Im in the mood for coffee, would you like one?"

Archie looked up from the filing he was doing, slow filing though might he add. "Oh! Go on then!" Archie sent her a small grin, happy for the break in silence and offer of feeding his addiction.

Regina nodded and gracefully pulled her jacket on, picking up her purse. "I shouldn't be long."

When Regina left to grab the nectar of the gods that he didn't believe in, he continued his filing. That was until five minutes in and a loud piercing noise cut through the still air. He looked up and attempted to find the source. A phone, the office phone actually.

Archie thought about it for a second before crossing over to the phone, a sleek black phone with far too many buttons on it. He picked it up and held it to his ear as he picked up a pen. "Good afternoon, Professor Mills's office, this is her Assistant Archie McCall speaking, how can I help?"

Archie was using his customer service voice, it was weird for him to do.

"Why hello Mr McCall, this is Dr. Cora Mills. Is my daughter there dear?" There was a voice that flooded through the earset which was almost as silky as Regina's and it wasn't hard to see where she got it from.

"I apologise Dr Mills, but Professor Mills is currently held up at a meeting. Is there any way I could help?" It felt weird to have someone other than Regina call him 'Mr McCall.'

There was silence on the phone for half a second before there was a voice again. "My daughter and I are scheduled for lunch this weekend, however I had a client ask for an appointment. Do you know her schedule dear?"

Archie's eyes wandered around for any diary that had been left and he quickly flipped the page to the weekend. "I see you're marked in for 11am on Saturday. Her schedule indicates that Professor Mills is free until 3pm." Archie informed the woman.

The woman hummed. "Would you mind asking her to reschedule for 1pm for me Mr McCall?"

Archie had decided that she sounded like a Karen. "Of course Dr Mills, I'll inform her as soon as she's back from her meeting."

"Thank you Mr McCall." The line went dead and he hung up on his end as he looked dumbly at the phone for a few minutes. Seeing a bed of post it notes he wrote on one with the pen he was holding.

'Dr Mills called requesting for a rescheduling for Saturday at 1pm instead of 11am due to a client.'

It was written in cursive, because it had been taught to him when he was in primary school and it had stuck. Putting the pen back down he stuck the post it note on the diary, in full view for when Regina came back.

Archie went back to his slow filing and waited for Regina to return with his addiction.


End file.
